


i'll come back for you, i promise

by rebeljyn



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rey Skywalker, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-02-15 20:36:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 47,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13038936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebeljyn/pseuds/rebeljyn
Summary: Poe Dameron and Rey bond over their mutual love for Finn and flying, but finding Luke Skywalker and defeating the First Order are a lot more time consuming than they appear. Somehow, Rey and Poe figure out how to fall in love along the way anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this since before TLJ came out, just as a "how would Damerey even work" sort of thing, so it starts at the end of TFA. Now that I've actually seen TLJ, I'm just gonna ignore everything that happened and I'm going to do my own thing. So no spoilers here. 
> 
> If you're new to this ship: welcome! I'm fairly new too, we can be newbies together. I hope you enjoy the fic as much as I enjoy writing it!

The tarmac laid out in front of the Resistance’s headquarters is already buzzing with an excitement that threatens to bubble over into a celebration when the _Falcon_ touches down with the last of the X-wings. 

It doesn’t feel like a victory—not to Rey as a team of medics rushes Finn to the medbay. Not when Rey looks over and sees a woman—proud and strong but shaken, grief etched in the lines of her face. 

The woman turns to her and looks at Rey as if she knows exactly who she is. 

_She must be Leia Organa, the Rebellion General,_ Rey tells herself. Han had talked of Leia, if only briefly, at Maz’s castle. 

On the _Falcon_ , Rey had kept her resolve and forced herself not to focus on Starkiller. It was easy then; jumping into hyperspace before they were caught in the explosion was more important. Now with Leia’s attention, Rey feels overwhelmed with the weight of everything. 

Something tugs at Rey’s heart, calling Rey over. She walks hesitantly across the tarmac, through the groups of cheering pilots and mechanics where Leia meets her with a warm embrace, pulling Rey close.

“What you did today Rey—” Leia’s voice wavers. Rey holds her tighter to stop herself from shaking.

“I feel like I’ve failed.” Rey chokes on the words, hating herself. Han was the closest thing she ever had to a father and a mentor, and Leia lost the man she loved deeply. He and Finn had been her first shot at what felt like a real family. They cared about her and she cared about them in return, and she couldn’t protect them. She couldn’t save Han, and she had been barely able to fight Kylo Ren back from Finn. 

Leia pulls back, a fierce determination shining through unshed tears, and shakes her head.

“You gave us hope and another chance to fight. You gave us a future.”

Rey swallows the lump from her throat as Leia reaches out and wipes the tear tracks from her cheeks. She’s been so used to looking out for herself. Now, on D’Qar in front of Leia and the Resistance with the _Falcon_ at her back, a fantasy that had only been given the credit of rumors on Jakku, Rey realizes that she’s suddenly become a part of something bigger, something more important than self-survival. And it had been that way ever since she rescued Beebee-Ate from Teedo.

“It was Finn,” Rey says, shaking her head. “He saved me. I need to see him. I need to know if he’s okay.”

A distant look forms in Leia’s eyes as she studies Rey for a brief moment before she smiles, warm and familiar, at Rey.

“I know. Go on.”

Something bumps hard into her leg, and Rey looks down to see Beebee-Ate. It chirps happily up at her, teetering towards the hangar until Rey follows. It warbles the whole way to the medbay, telling Rey about the battle above the oscillator as it drops bits and pieces of info about the layout of D’Qar’s base.

“It’s amazing,” Rey says, looking around as they walk through. The mechanics and technicians work on the X-wings while the remaining pilots push and shove at each other playfully, burning off the excess excitement from the win. Before the First Order, she had never seen anything so militantly organized; the only thing that was close to organized peacekeeping at Niima Outpost were the Niima Outpost Militia, a group of three Kyozo cousins who couldn’t touch Unkar Plutt even if they tried.

Beebee-Ate beeps in agreement and leads Rey down a hallway that winds deeper into the base where an announcement crackles over the public comms:

“All officers and squadrons report to the command center. A debrief will begin in T minus five minutes.”

Beebee-Ate pauses, beeping up at Rey inquisitively.

“I’ll meet up with everyone later,” Rey replies. “I just want to see if Finn’s okay. I won’t be long.”

Beebee-Ate looks up at her, then swings its dome back towards the way they came, looking torn.

A pilot half-dressed in his flight suit stumbles out from the medbay as soon as the message is transmitted through the comms again, signalling two minutes before the meeting begins.

“Hey! Come on Beebee-Ate, we need that map.”

The pilot looks up, and their eyes meet. Rey had seen him run over to Finn as the medics loaded him onto the grav-stretcher, evading all of their attempts to give Finn space as they rushed him off to the medbay. She hadn’t gotten a proper look at him then, but she makes up for it now, as the comms announce one minute. He takes her in with alert brown eyes, the only signs of the long day they had are the dark circles underneath, and smiles wide, lighting up his face in a way that makes Rey’s chest feel warm.

Finn had talked of a Resistance pilot all the time in their downtime, gushed on and on about how brave and kind he was, and how he had accepted Finn for who he was; how he was ready to bring his whole squadron to the First Order’s front door to help Finn save her.

 _Is this Poe Dameron?_ Rey wonders.

“Rey? You should come too,” he says. “It’s the map to Luke Skywalker.”

Rey looks back at the entrance of the medbay, aching to see if Finn is okay. The comms announce one minute, and Poe takes her hand.

“Come on!”

Rey grips it right back, and runs with him.

The hope and the anxiety are suffocating in the command center when Rey and Poe arrive. Poe immediately goes to Leia and Rey hangs back, noticing an older R2 unit.

“General?” Poe asks.

“Artoo has something to show us,” she says, a wry, bittersweet smile coming to her lips.

Artoo projects the holo-image, and the incomplete map envelopes the command center in blue light. Beebee-Ate whistles excitedly to Poe Dameron and offers the missing piece. Suddenly the gap is filled and the tension in the room dissipates into jubilation. Rey grins up at the map, heart pounding in her chest as cheers erupt in the small room. She reads the names of planets she’s never even heard of, located in a system farther from Jakku than D’Qar and something tells her that this is right, this is where she is meant to be. 

The pilot—Poe Dameron steps forward still gazing at the map before he turns to her, grinning. Rey takes him in again, finding that she likes him; the shadows shaping his face, the light from the holo-map framing a blue halo from behind him. There’s a fire behind his dark eyes, a determination that lights them. 

Suddenly Leia touches her arm, pulling Rey away from her observations.

“We need to talk,” she says, a new light kindled in her eyes. She looks at Poe. “We’ll only need a moment.”

Poe nods, giving Rey one last grin. “Sure thing.”

Rey follows Leia back to her headquarters, nervousness bubbling up in her stomach to mix with the excitement. Word is travelling fast through the halls of the base, the echoes of the pre-celebrations follow them until they’re muffled behind the shield door when it hisses shut. Rey feels tense as she takes the chair opposite Leia and her desk, but despite not having an appetite, scalds her tongue trying to gulp down the steaming caf Leia offers.

“I know that this is going to be difficult to talk about so soon after everything that’s happened, but I feel like it’s important for you to know this, Rey.” Leia gives her a soft look, setting down her own mug of caf. “There was nothing you could have done to save Han.”

Rey’s stomach goes cold against the caf that had just been warming her and blinks, willing herself not to cry again. 

“It was my fault,” Leia continues, “I told him that we could still save our son. I said that there was still good in him, and I knew Han felt that too.”

White hot fury surges through Rey’s veins and dries any oncoming tears. Kylo Ren is nothing but a monster. He murdered his own father, even after Han begged him to come with him. Even after Han had risked everything to bring him back, like Finn had for Rey. Even after Han and Leia held out hope for him after all this time. Rey wonders if Leia still has the same faith in her son now. Still, she knows how hard it is wanting things to return to the way they once were.

“There is another reason why I brought you here, Rey,” Leia says, leaving the first conversation behind them: onto the easier one, the one where she can be a general again. “Now that we have the map to lead us to my brother, I need you to find him.”

Rey stills, the mug of caf she had been holding slowly lowering from her lips. 

“Me?”

Leia nods, a small smile coming to her face.

“With Chewie of course, he’ll never let the Falcon out of his sight again, and I think the same goes for you now too.”

Rey knows that somehow, it was always supposed to be like this. That she was the one to find Luke. Though Leia missed her brother, she needed to be there for the Resistance, and Rey needed someone to guide her on her own journey.

“I didn’t train to be a Jedi like Luke, but I can still sense that the Force is strong in you. Luke can show you the ways of the Force. Then you’ll bring him back to me, and I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”

Rey laughs, but Leia’s little joke does nothing to lessen the monumental task set ahead of her. Leia takes her hand with a gentle smile, and for a moment Rey feels as if she’s come to find her own destiny, far away from Jakku where she watched the older women around her work from dawn till dusk, wondering if her fate would be the same.

“We’ve won a tremendous battle here today,“ Leia says, “but we’ll need Luke to win the war.”

“I know,” Rey says with more certainty. If Kylo Ren had survived Starkiller’s destruction, Rey knows she won’t survive another encounter, not untrained. “When do I leave? And Finn? I need to know if he’s okay before—”

“I haven’t been able to take a look at the reports from the medbay yet, but don’t worry. As a member of the Resistance under my command, I’m grounding you for the next few days while we plan our next move.” Leia punctuates this with a stern look that is only dampened by a fond smile. “Even heroes need some rest. Now go see Finn.” 

  


* * *

  


Rey had never seen a bacta tank before, not personally. Back on Jakku, if someone needed intensive care there was a high chance they wouldn’t make it through the night, and it was a miracle if they didn’t succumb to the infection that set in afterward. She swallows the lump from her throat when she sees Finn in one of the few the Resistance has. He floats, unresponsive, and Rey’s chest tightens. She runs to him and presses her hand to the tank, feeling the warmth of the bacta heating her palm. She breathes out, shutting her eyes. It’s useless now, but the guilt still digs into the pit of her stomach over Finn’s defeat. Rey wishes she could have recovered earlier, that she had been able to grab the blaster before Kylo Ren struck him down. She tries not to think about it and lets her mind wander until she can feel a steady thump pulsing around her, almost like a heartbeat. A small smile finds its way onto her lips for the first time since escaping Starkiller.

“He’ll be alright, you know.”

Rey jumps, pulling her hand away from the permaglass as if it were burned. She had been so focused on Finn that the doctor had slipped back into the medbay unnoticed. 

The woman gives her a warm smile.

“I’ve had to repeat this to so many people.”

Rey looks back at Finn. He’s becoming a big deal and he hasn’t even been on the base for a whole day. He’d be proud of himself.

“I’m Harter Kalonia, Finn’s doctor, and everyone else’s around here. You’re Rey, right? General Organa said you’d be in. She also told me to check you over as well, if that’s alright with you.”

Rey pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. She doesn’t want to waste time on an examination, but her back is still aching from the impact with the tree, and if it keeps her from getting kicked out after visiting hours? She’ll stick by Finn’s side as long as she can.

She removes her outer layers of clothing and lies down on the medical slab, shivering when her belly hits the cold durasteel. She looks over at Finn as Dr. Kalonia presses her fingers lightly to her back, asking her if she’s in pain. Her eyes don’t leave the bacta tank for the rest of the examination.

Rey escapes, to her surprise, with very minimal damage save for some colourful bruising and scrapes—nothing bacta patches can’t handle—and is dismissed only after she takes a new pair of clothes, Resistance standard, and reluctantly leaves her old ones behind. 

Walking back to the hangar bay, she scratches at the fabric with a frown. It’s soft—the softest texture that she’s worn in years, not bitten rough with sand—and it doesn’t feel like she’ll get a rash from all the rubbing and chafing. It’s so soft it’s making her skin itch. Rey wonders if there’s any way she can steal her old outfit back.

Needing to take her mind and hands off it, Rey decides to go put some work into the Falcon. She’s sure she felt a stall in the engine just before they hit hyperspace.

The closer she gets to the hangar bay, the louder it is, and soon Rey is standing at the edge of the entire Resistance as it celebrates.

She pushes through, her chest tight as she tries to get to the _Falcon_. But everyone seems to think they know her and wants to stop her to talk. Maybe they do know her—she’s Rey, a nobody from a backwater planet who managed to escape from the First Order and help blow up Starkiller base. It’s dizzying. She can’t go more than a couple of feet without someone mentioning it and offering her a bottle of Corellian ale in thanks. She’s sure she never saw this many people at Niima Outpost at one time before.

Finally, Rey manages to escape to a quieter corner of the hangar, where Chewie is already starting to repair the _Falcon_. An R2 droid beeps up at him unhelpfully, scolding him about how the ship looks ready to fall apart until Chewie threatens to throw a hydrospanner at it.

It’s Luke Skywalker’s R2 unit from the command center, Rey realizes. Her pulse jumps as she’s reminded she’s a part of this now, a part of something bigger with the very characters she had heard stories about when she was growing up.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Rey interjects into their argument before Chewie actually does throw the hydrospanner.

Chewie growls at her, telling her to go back and enjoy the party while there’s still time to relax. Artoo beeps sourly, telling her to go check the stern of the ship.

Rey ducks under the _Falcon_ and gasps, seeing how badly the durasteel is damaged at the back. Horrified, she reaches up and pulls a rock from the twisted metal.

“What happened?”

Chewie snuffles reluctantly about the rescue plan, adding in the details he had left out before.

“Han Solo did _what_? No one can survive coming out of hyperspace that far into a planet’s atmosphere!”

But then again it was Han Solo, the man who never asked how until it got done. Of course he could have pulled it off. Rey’s chest aches with the thought of it.

This sets Artoo off again, beeping obscenely about how useless the hyperdrive is now. Rey would try to be offended for Han, but she would rather not think about how damaged the inertial dampeners are. If they’d taken another hit during their escape, they’d all have been crushed in the jump to hyperspace. 

Rey gets to work, prying the rock and sediment from the underside of the _Falcon’s_ hull until her hands aren’t trembling anymore and her chest feels lighter. She wonders how long it’ll take to repair all of this mess. This could set them back at least a full week. She knows what a setback this will be, but right now she’s just glad to have something to work on, something to take her mind off of the people, the celebrations; everything.

Artoo beeps again at Rey.

“Miss Rey, he says that the general is lending the _Millennium Falcon_ some of the best mechanics and technicians once celebrations are over.”

Rey turns, shocked and excited all over again.

“See-Threepio? The Rebellion protocol droid?” 

“Goodness! You recognized me? Yes it is I, See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations.”

Rey beams. “How do you override your self-preservation software? It’s so rare! When was your last memory wipe?”

She catches Chewie exchanging a long-suffering look with Artoo, but doesn’t understand what for—that they assume she’ll get tired of the sound of his voice modulator and endless conversation.

But Rey doesn’t get bored or annoyed with Threepio, just works while they chat back and forth, occasionally poking around in his circuits and wiring with fascination until most of the debris has been pulled from the _Falcon’s_ hull and even Chewie and Artoo have left.

“Miss Rey, aren’t you going to be joining the celebration?” Threepio asks.

“Maybe. We’ll see.” Rey smiles and Threepio leaves to find Artoo. She doesn’t think she will, she’s had enough excitement and adventure today. She used to think she’d go crazy in the old AT-AT she called home when all she could hear was silence and her thoughts got too loud. Now, she’s desperate to hear her own thoughts again.

She walks out onto the tarmac. The temperature has started to drop; Rey can’t decide if it’s warm or cold as the breeze brushes against her skin. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and all of the stars are on display. Rey smiles, walking up the grassy cline the base is hidden under, and sets herself onto the grass.

It’s so _soft_ she realizes. She runs her hand through the dewy blades, awestruck at the new sensation. She hadn’t expected it to be so strange. The prickly edges tickle her fingers and her palm, nothing like the coarse, rough sand back on Jakku.

She lets herself fall back into the grass, and grins up at the stars when her skin tingles against the damp grass.

In the relative quiet of the cool D’Qar night, she wonders if her family might have finally come back to Jakku only to find her gone. She swallows the lump from her throat, remembering what Maz Kanata had told her back on Takodana: “ _They’re never coming back_ ”. Rey knows that, but she’s still sick with a longing for home, with that tiny little bit of hope she had forced herself to have back on Jakku. But she’s here now, with the hope of finding a new place to call home, and she’ll cling to it and protect it for as long as she can.

A familiar beeping brings Rey back to the grass on D’Qar, and she sits up to look around the tarmac.

Beebee-Ate beeps excitedly as it shifts its head back and forth between her and the pilot, Poe. It’s nice seeing the droid interacting so freely and openly with someone when it took some time for Rey—and especially Finn—to gain its trust.

“Yeah, buddy,” Poe says, trying to calm it down. “I know that’s her. Of course I’m gonna say hi.”

He grins up at Rey and starts climbing up the hill.

“I hope you don’t mind some company,” he says. He offers one of the drinks he’s holding and Rey stands up to take it. “I was holding this for Jess, but she disappeared.

“I’m Poe. Poe Dameron,” he continues. He sticks out his free hand as well and Rey takes it and grips it hard, feeling the same rough pilot’s calluses along his palm and fingers when he returns the pressure.

“I’m Rey.” She realizes that she’s still holding Poe’s hand and immediately lets go, embarrassed.

“I know, no one can stop talking about you. You’re the hero of the day.”

“I didn’t blow up the oscillator.”

“You saved Finn.” 

The genuine sincerity in Poe’s voice catches her off-guard, stopping her from any further protest, so she moves to join him when he sits on the hill. 

“I know he might not have thought he could, but he ended up saving the day too. I’m really glad he gets a chance to see that, and to see how much people appreciate it. He gets that chance because of you.”

“Thank you.” Rey doesn’t know what else to say so she focuses back on the stars. She doesn’t remember being complimented a day in her life. All her achievements up to leaving Jakku were measured in portions, her allowance to eat every day and survive.

Poe’s knuckles brush the exposed skin on her shoulder softly, pulling her back from that desert planet again.

“Hey, don’t worry about it too much Rey. You and Finn’ll do great here,” he says.

He takes the bottle of Corellian ale from Rey when he finishes his own, and they take turns drinking from it until Rey feels lighter and finds herself laughing harder at his piloting stories with Black Squadron. They stay like that for a while, sitting on the grass, trading stories and ale until the ale runs out.

“Terex wasn’t a good man,” Poe says, wrapping up the tale, “but he didn’t deserve what Captain Phasma did to him either. I think he hated it so much that he saved me and my squadron, in his own way.”

“People will do crazy things when they want something for themselves,” Rey says.

“Yeah,” Poe agrees. He looks back up at the stars, losing himself among the constellations for a moment before turning back to Rey.

“Are you okay out here? I’m going back to the hangar and make sure no one’s done anything to the ships. General Organa’s going to have my head if they need new paint jobs again.” Poe grins and gets up from the grass. Rey wants to protest. The easy conversation between them felt good. “I’ll see you around, Rey. We always need new pilots.”

Poe winks and starts walking back down to the tarmac where Beebee-Ate is waiting. There’s a beat of silence before he calls back up the hill:

“Just make sure you’re in before they close the hangar doors or you’ll be stuck out here all night. It’s nice, but it gets cold.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, then,” Rey says.

Poe flashes another easy smile and Rey falls back against the grass, flushing with excitement as she grins up at the moon. Poe Dameron is just as much the rebel she had always fantasized about when she put on her pilot’s helmet: charming, sweet, quick with his words; a great fighter who always does what it takes to save the day. Talking to Poe feels like being seven all over again and listening to whatever fragments of flight logs could still be replayed in the bones of old X-wing models buried in the sands.

Rey continues stroking her hands through the grass, a soft smile on her face as she gazes up at the same stars she had when she was little, imagining the best pilots in the galaxy taking down the Empire up in Jakku’s night sky.

Hopefully she’ll get the chance to do the same one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm over on [tumblr](https://officialscarif.tumblr.com) if you wanna say hi/and or tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

The lights are dimmed to a meagre thirty-five percent when Poe and Beebee-Ate walk into the medbay again. The celebrations in the hangar are slowly dying down; Leia has already started laying out the plans for the evacuation from D’Qar with the other commanding officers. The First Order won’t stay down for long; Poe knows this. And now that they have the Resistance’s coordinates, they’ll attack with all they’ve got.

Dr. Kalonia, personal belongings in hand, frowns when Poe adjusts the lights to a more reasonable fifty-seven percent.

“I hope you’re not coming to see me for any alcohol related injuries this time, Commander Dameron,” she says.

Poe shrugs and offers an apologetic smile. That was _one_ time, back in his early New Republic Navy years.

“Not this time,” he says. “Just here to see one of the patients.” He hadn’t been able to be there as much as he wanted earlier. He had given the team of medics breathing room as they rushed Finn to the medical bay. But then General Organa had wanted a debrief as soon as Poe was available, and Poe had barely made it back to the medbay before Kalonia checked Finn over and granted him an emergency submersion in bacta. 

Poe had felt like he had been punched by a Wookiee. The base had been notified that the medbay was running low on bacta before the attack on Starkiller, and only life threatening injuries would be treated with a submersion. 

He stood there, stunned before the order came for all officers to report to the command centre.

“I thought you saw to him this afternoon.” Kalonia decides to humor him anyway, grabbing the last of her things. “Just do me and the Resistance a favour—get some rest. I’m running out of stim-shots.”

“Guess we’ll just have to squeeze in another supply run, won’t we?” Poe tries his most charming grin.

Kalonia gives him the same withering look she gave him back when he was a new pilot in the Navy who had tried and failed to climb his X-wing after more than a few shots of Corellian whiskey. She leaves and Poe is alone save for the company of pilots wounded on Starkiller, now sleeping, a lone medical droid whirring in the background, and Finn.

Poe approaches the tank slowly, scratching a hand through the thick waves of his hair. Finn only looks as if he’s sleeping, but Poe walks around and sees the cauterized flesh slicing through his spine and up his back. Poe’s gut twists, sick. 

“ _Move him up the list and get him to a bacta tank immediately,_ ” Kalonia had said, pushing Poe away. “ _Or else he’s never walking again, if he makes it._ ”

Beebee-Ate beeps up at Poe, curious.

“He’ll be alright, buddy,” Poe says.

Beebee-Ate chirps hopefully.

“Yeah, I hope so too.”

He remembers Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, a red jagged scar of plasma and how it had cut through Lor San Tekka like he was nothing.

Finn didn’t deserve this. He’s a good guy. He stood up for what was right, stood down the whole First Order in defiance, and it cut him right down. Something like this shouldn’t have happened to a good man, but it did. 

“Thank you,” Poe says to him. The monitor beeps to the rhythm of Finn’s heart, steady and strong. “For everything. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

“How’s he holding up?”

Poe looks from Finn to Snap as Snap’s blurry silhouette moves across the other side of the bacta tank.

“He’s got a fighting chance. Have any more good news?”

Snap nods, handing Poe his datapad.

“I think my recon on Kril’Dor will pay off. One of my contacts mentioned that the First Order’s been hiding tibanna gas mining operations throughout the Mid Rim. This one isn’t the biggest, but we need the supplies, not another big _kriff you_.”

“No, we don’t Wexley.” Leia appears from behind Finn’s privacy screen.

Snap’s face flushes, made painfully obvious by the cool blue light from the bacta tank. 

“General Organa! Commander Dameron and I were just discussing fuel. And how much we need. And where we can steal it from.”

Leia’s eyebrow raises. She’s smirking when she looks at Poe.

“And when were you going to tell me this, Commander Dameron?”

“We need the supplies and the fuel, General.” Poe passes the datapad to Leia. “We won’t be able to evacuate out of this system if we don’t do something. Snap’s just been gathering info on First Order gas mines so, you know, we don’t steal from someone who actually needs it.” Poe continues when Leia seems to accept this: “I was going to notify you as soon as we had solid intel and a solid plan.”

Poe chews at his bottom lip as Leia considers him. She knows how badly they need the fuel; the rations for the X-wings were cut by a quarter just before Starkiller like everything else was. And if they can’t escape the system before the First Order finds them, they don’t have a chance.

“We lost more than half the fleet today. We can’t afford to lose any more pilots.”

“Black Squadron can handle it,” Poe argues. “It’s our only chance to pull this evacuation off.”

Leia sighs. “You know that I know you’re right, Poe. Permission granted. But _only_ Black Squadron. I’m not risking any more pilots than I have to.” The medbay is quiet as she checks on Finn before she retires for the night.

“We lost five wings on Starkiller,” Snap says when she’s gone. “You think the three of us will be enough?”

“You said the facility’s lightly defended, right? It won’t be a problem,” Poe says.

“Bastian’s been looking for that promotion too,” Snap suggests. “He was a good pilot on Starkiller. And Kril’Dor will be an easier mission than most to integrate him into the squad.”

Poe looks back at Finn, considering the offer. He’ll have to get to the flight logs and in-depth reports of the battle to confirm.

“You’re right. He may deserve it,” he agrees.

Beebee-Ate, who had been quietly monitoring Finn and the conversation, rolls over to Poe and bumps his leg, whistling enthusiastically.

“One of the best pilots you’ve ever seen, huh?” Poe grins, rubbing Beebee-Ate’s dome. “You know I wouldn’t mind having Rey fly with us buddy, but General Organa has a special mission for her, we can’t keep her all to ourselves.”

“That’s four, then,” Poe says to Snap when Beebee-Ate warbles with resignation. “More than enough to take on a mining platform. We can do this. We’ve pulled off crazier stunts before.”

“Somehow they keep getting crazier,” Snap observes with some amusement. “Wouldn’t have it any other way though, Poe.” He gives Poe a tired salute before shuffling out of the medical bay. “Beebee-Ate, make sure he doesn’t stay here all night, alright?”

  


* * *

  


Black Squadron and Bastian are gathered in the hangar by Poe’s X-wing, suited up and ready to go when Poe strides in, hiding a yawn in the orange sleeve of his flight suit.

Poe is ready—well, almost ready. He hasn’t seen Beebee-Ate since it found him dozing off on a cot early that morning near Finn’s bacta tank, datapad filled with flight logs and reports dangerously close to slipping from his hand.

“It’s good news, right?” Jessika asks.

“General Organa is allowing us the largest transports we have for the mission. All we have to do is clear the facility of any Imperials and Admiral Statura will lead the convoy down to the platform so they can extract the refined tibanna gas. We take as much as we can; get in and get out before their own convoys arrive for pickup.”

“Cutting it close,” Jess says. “I like it.”

“Hey, since when did we not take risks?” Poe grins. “We won’t have a lot of time before the First Order realizes that we’re not their convoy. We’ll need to use that time to cut their communications as fast as possible and destroy the hangars so we’re not fighting the entire station.” “Sounds good to me,” Snap agrees.

“All right.” Bastian grins. “When’s take-off?”

“As soon as I find my droid. Anyone seen Beebee-Ate today?”

“Yeah, right behind you,” Snap says. “Whose droid is that though? The one that doesn’t want to fly with Jess anymore.”

Jess punches Snap’s arm hard, unamused. Poe looks back to the hangar entrance to see Beebee-Ate rolling in with Ivee at its side. 

“It’s no sweat, Jess,” Poe says, squeezing Jess’s shoulder as they walk to their X-wings. “Ivee would just rather be a part of the ground crew.”

Ivee refused to keep flying with Jess shortly before Poe went to Jakku. Jess had a bit of a reputation for losing her astromech droids, and according to Beebee-Ate, there were too many close calls and Ivee didn’t want to risk its dome anymore. But Ivee didn’t want Jess knowing that, and Poe was sworn to secrecy along with Beebee-Ate.

“Did Ivee tell Beebee-Ate to tell you that?” Jess asks, narrowing her eyes.

“Of course not!” Poe grins. He climbs into _Black One_ ’s cockpit. “Beebee-Ate says there’s no hard feelings.”

Snap and Bastian burst into fits of laughter before high command connects with their comms.

“May the Force be with you Black Squadron,” Leia says over the comm units. There’s a heavy note to her tone, just like there had been during their brief conversation before Bastian reported in for his promotion.

 _“I trust you, Poe,_ ” Leia had said before looking back at the data. She let out a frustrated sigh. _“But be careful. There’s just something I don’t like about this whole thing. We need Black Squadron to come home. ”_

Whatever is making Leia anxious, Poe knows that Black Squadron is ready for it. 

_Black One_ ’s repulsorlift engines kick in. Poe’s veins thrum with them as adrenaline floods through him. Ever since he was small enough to fit on his mother’s lap in her A-wing, the rush of taking off was always there, and Poe knows it won’t wear off anytime soon. He feels invincible as soon as he’s off the ground.

“Morning, Tev,” Poe says, radioing the flight tower as _Black One_ lifts off. “Black Leader requesting clearance to take off.”

“Permission granted. You’re all clear, Black Leader. Good hunting.”

Poe guides _Black One_ away from the airfield and, pointing its nose towards the glowing ion engines of the rest of Black Squadron, asks:

“You got those coordinates, Beebee?”

Beebee-Ate beeps in the affirmative. Poe engages the hyperdrive and follows his squadron into hyperspace.

  


* * *

  


Black Squadron drops out of hyperspace within the hour. Kril’Dor looms ahead, the gas giant’s green atmosphere taking up Poe’s whole cockpit viewport. 

“Alright guys, this is it: Kril’Dor,” Poe announces. “We’re right above the mining facilities; they’re pretty lightly guarded. Snap says there’s less than a full squadron stationed here: five flights, four TIEs per flight.”

“There’s been some interference with my scanners,” Snap adds, “but nothing weird. Droid says it’s the change in atmospheric pressure when you hit atmo.”

“Well, whatever happens, we’ll be ready for it,” Poe says.

“Thank the stars someone has enough optimism for all of us,” Jess says. Poe grins. It’s what he’s here for, after all.

“Just stick to the plan,” Poe says. “Snap is going to take out their comms tower first so they can’t get a signal out for help. That’s the main priority. Jess and I will take care of the hangars and pick off any TIEs that are able to scramble for air support. Bastian, stay with the convoys.”

Poe locks his s-foils into attack position, and they break atmo.

“Once the air’s clear we’ll land and take out the welcoming party. Then the convoys can move in. Everybody clear? Just stick—”

Beebee-Ate trills and Poe looks down at his scanner. It flashes. Three, four, five red dots blink before Poe can hear them. A squadron of TIEs bursts through the clouds, breaking apart Black Squadron’s formation with a flurry of green blaster fire. 

“Looks like our little welcoming party’s early!” Poe says, banking a hard right. “Jess, on me. Bastian, stick with that convoy. Snap, go take out that comms tower.”

“But Poe—”

“Go! I’ll cover for you.”

Snap breaks away from the mess. Almost immediately a TIE fighter gives chase. Poe follows, watching as it swerves and weaves, trying to avoid _Black One_ ’s line of fire as it waits for an open shot on Snap. 

His targeting computer blinks, the TIE suddenly dead center, and Poe pulls the trigger. A wing explodes and breaks off. Poe veers right, narrowly missing it.

“You’re all clear!” Poe says. He corkscrews back and picks off another fighter firing on Jess. 

“Thanks,” Jess says. “I’ve got this one.” The fighter explodes right behind _Black One_ , close enough to push Poe forward into his restraints as the blast rocks the X-wing.

“Last fighter, headed towards the convoy,” Admiral Statura’s voice cuts through the comms.

“Bastian, this one’s on you!”

“I’m on him!” Bastian confirms. Moments later he lets out a cry of victory. “That’s all of them!”

“Alright guys, minor change of plans. Be careful,” Poe says. “Something tells me that they knew we were coming.”

Poe looks down at his scanner, determining he doesn’t have far to go until he’s in range of the mining facility. There’s a blip, confirming the mine’s location before the scanner blanks. It’s back up and mapping out the facility in under a millisecond, but Poe taps it, frowning. 

“Did you get that, buddy?” Beebee-Ate beeps positively. That might just be the interference Snap mentioned earlier. Maybe it’s not just interference like they had thought. “Can you try and figure out what it was?” “What’s going on, Commander? Did you get that too?” Jess asks. “My scanner just shorted for a hot second. You don’t think—”

“I don’t know what I think yet, Jess.” Poe’s grip on his flight control tightens as they race to the mining platform. There’s no time to think now; only to follow the mission through, no matter what Black Squadron’s gotten themselves into. 

The mining facility sprawls out in front of _Black One_ ’s viewport; different outposts are connected via a maze of black durasteel ramps set against the fluorescent orange clouds. Hangars, landing pads, defense turrets, the tibanna gas canisters themselves. The the comms tower is a smoking pile of debris. 

“Communications array is destroyed,” Snap confirms. “Those anti-spacecraft guns are a bit of a problem though… Ah, _kriff._ More TIEs incoming!”

Poe’s scanner flashes with six more heat signatures rising from the nearest hangar. 

“No offense Snap, I love shooting down TIEs more than anything,” he says, firing on a fighter flying straight for him. “But this isn’t exactly how I thought this mission was going to go.”

“Get someone down on that platform, Black Squadron,” Statura says. “Taking out the turrets from the air is too great a risk!”

“The Admiral’s right,” Poe says. “They’ll shoot you down before you can get a lock on them. Snap, Jess. Hold things down up here, I’ll go in and disable the turrets.”

Beebee-Ate whistles nervously as Poe brings _Black One_ down on a landing pad.

“Don’t worry, buddy.” Poe punches the inner console. The hatch falls open and Poe takes the blaster hidden inside before disengaging the cockpit’s viewport. “We’ll handle anything those stormtroopers throw at us.”

He isn’t exactly planning to have a small squad surrounding his ship when he climbs out, but plans change. Poe can work with this. No matter how much he’s beginning to not like it.

“Freeze!” The lead officer aims his blaster. 

Poe raises his hands to his head, knotting his fingers in his curls as the troops around him take positions. He grimaces as two troopers take his elbows roughly to restrain him. “Commander Dameron, you’re under arrest on several accounts of galactic terrorism. I’m Officer Halvo of the First Order, and I’ll be delighted to escort you to your very own cell.”

Poe scoffs. This Halvo guy clearly loves to hear himself talk. A typical Order officer. With any luck, Poe can find out how Halvo knows who he is. “Terrorism, really? Is that what I’m famous for around here? What’s blowing up a whole system called these days?”

Officer Halvo’s lips twist. He nods to the commanding stormtrooper who slams his blaster right into Poe’s stomach. In one swift motion, Poe’s knees slam against the dark durasteel ramp. Poe tries to catch his breath, but his belly aches where the trooper’s blaster made contact. His own blaster is thrown down onto the ramp after a rough frisk, out of reach, and his commlink is passed to Halvo, who smiles.

 _Okay, change of plans,_ he tells himself. _Again._ He’s got to get those anti-spacecraft turrets offline for the mission to succeed. He doesn’t need to remind himself twice that the entire Resistance is counting on them for this fuel. Maybe Beebee-Ate has a plan. It might have used Poe’s capture as a distraction to sneak into the facility by itself.

“ _Poe?_ ” Poe’s commlink beeps again. “ _Poe where are you? We need those turrets down. The First Order convoy is going to be here soon. We won’t be able to take ‘em all._ ”

Halvo smirks down at him. “The Commander is going to be pleased.”

“Commander? What commander?” Poe asks. He winces, trying to breathe around a bruised rib or two. They _were_ set up, and Poe walked Black Squadron right into the trap. “You’ll have to be more specific, a lot of Commanders want me.”

Halvo waves him off. “That doesn’t concern you at the moment, Dameron. I believe the lives of your squadron do. Unless you’re feeling considerate and want to save me the extra datawork.”

Leia’s voice cuts through the commlink chatter at his hip. “ _Commander Dameron, I repeat, come in!_ ”

“ _We may need backup, General_ ,” Jessika says, breathless. “ _Poe hasn’t been able to disable the turrets.”_

Officer Halvo frowns, and Poe finds himself staring down the barrel of his blaster again.

“Tell your friends that there will be no need for backup. Tell them that we’ll gladly allow them to land, _if_ they agree to a peaceful surrender just as you have.”

“I figured you would want to do the honors,” Poe says. Halvo smacks him with the butt of his blaster. Poe’s cheek and lip smart, and when he licks at his lips, he tastes blood. “Alright, alright.”

He yanks his arm free from one of the troopers behind him and reaches for his commlink.

“Uh, that won’t be necessary, General. Everything’s under control.” Poe breathes in. It’s now or never. Snap and Jess and Bastian will still have a chance even if he doesn’t. “Just a minor _reactor leak_.”

Officer Halvo frowns, but it’s too late. The trooper who had freed Poe’s arm screams and falls to the ground in a steaming heap of white plastoid. 

“Where did—get that droid under control!” Halvo shouts. Beebee-Ate speeds towards Poe’s blaster, but the Officer kicks it over the ramp, leaving Beebee-Ate to defend itself with its shock arm.

Poe rams his shoulder into the back of the other trooper’s knee. Stunned, the trooper’s grip on his blaster slips and Poe grabs it. He rams the butt of it into the trooper’s helm, sending him over the ramp.

Beebee-Ate screeches in pain. Poe panics, seeing a scorch mark smoking on its side, and runs to help. He throws himself onto the metal grating and he slides right under the commanding trooper. He lifts his blaster up, and the red bolt hits home. Pieces of white plastoid explode, and the trooper, motionless, falls over the side.

Poe jumps back to his feet, laying a hand on Beebee-Ate’s dome. 

“You alright, buddy?” 

Beebee-Ate tells him it’s nothing to worry about. Poe worries, but Officer Halvo still has his blaster aimed and ready.

“So we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Poe says. He raises his blaster. Beebee-Ate vibrates near Halvo’s feet, shock arm readied. “You wanna tell me who this Commander of yours is now?”

Halvo readjusts his grip on his blaster pistol, hatred burning in his eyes.

“Not so talkative, are you now, Officer Halvo?” Poe sighs. “Well that’s just too bad because—”

Beebee-Ate screeches, but Poe hears it too. An X-wing swoops low, barely missing the fire from the blaster turrets. Poe’s mouth goes dry. “Beebee-Ate, move!” He fires a stray shot. It’s just enough to throw Halvo off. Poe turns his back, and runs. A proton torpedo hits the ramp dead center, knocking Poe forward. He stumbles and falls, groaning when his bruised knees hit the unforgiving durasteel again. He grasps at the chain links to keep himself from tumbling off the side as the ramp groans and shudders underneath him. 

“I’m alright,” Poe says, waving Beebee-Ate off. “I’m fine, just…” The landing pad tilts, and _Black One_ splits into two across his vision.

Beebee-Ate beeps again. “What? Halvo… hanging, still alive?”

Poe scrambles to his feet and looks back. There’s a smoking chasm where they all stood moments before. Halvo, or what Poe can see of his hands, is dangling from the mangled edge. 

“You wanna live, Halvo?” Poe reaches down and grabs him by the wrist clumsily. “Let me help you help me.”

“Don’t touch me, Rebel scum!” Halvo seethes, pulling out his blaster.

Poe lets go of his wrist immediately, and he falls back against the durasteel grating, vision dancing. Halvo’s glove slips against the durasteel, and the last Poe sees of Halvo is a face blanched white with terror as he falls into the clouds.

Poe wishes his hand would stay steady as he grabs for his commlink.

“I’m on the move again.” Poe looks out at the gaping hole in the ramp. “Try not to drop any more torpedoes on me, okay?” He turns to Beebee-Ate. “Alright buddy, Plan B. Do we have a Plan B?”

Beebee-Ate whistles and chirps, pointing its photoreceptor to the ramp connecting the landing pad to another hangar. 

“And if we can get to the comms tower, we’ll be able to shut the turrets off from there!” Poe agrees. “I just hope the comms station wasn’t damaged too bad in the explosion.”

At least Snap’s intel is mostly right. There aren’t many stormtroopers stationed here. Beebee-Ate is able to hack into the security relays through the comms unit in the hangar and reroute most troops to the second hangar and override the emergency protocols to lock it down. Poe and Beebee-Ate handle the remaining troops ordered to guard the comms tower without a problem.

The scent of melted durasteel and rubble hits hard when Beebee-Ate finally manages to override the security clearance to the comms tower. Poe coughs at the thick dust, but thankfully the command consoles are more or less intact. 

“Alright, turrets,” he mutters, glancing around the smokey room. Beebee-Ate rolls over to a sparking console and plugs in. Poe follows, and pulls up the turret diagnostics when Beebee-Ate tells him what to do, hoping that neither of them get electrocuted. 

“Taking turrets offline now,” Poe confirms, punching in the code Beebee-Ate reads off. He pulls the lever down, grinning at his droid when he hears the power cutting off. A bright red warning sign appears over the defense console, telling them that there are still enemy fighters in range. Their job is done, and the hard part is over. 

“You did it, Poe! Turrets are offline,” Snap cheers.

Two more explosions rock the facility as Jess and Snap drop their torpedos on the turrets.

“It’s all thanks to you, buddy,” Poe says. Beebee-Ate chirps happily. “We couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”

“Permission to land, Commander?” Admiral Statura asks. “Awaiting your confirmation.”

“Permission granted, Admiral.”

The Resistance convoy begins its descent, and Poe gives Beebee-Ate a high five. The extraction flows smoothly after that. Poe beams with pride as he watches the readings on the tibanna gas monitors deplete.

“It was worth it, buddy.”

Poe turns, ready to get back to his ship and regroup. The hologram of the base in the center of the room was damaged during the explosion as well; it flickers light blue, in and out. Snap, Jess, and Bastian are holding up well, Poe doesn’t see many TIEs still in the air with the second hangar on lockdown. The holo flickers again and Poe looks closer. A new signature rises, larger than the starfighters, larger than Admiral Statura’s convoy. The First Order is early, and that’s no supply convoy.

“That’s not good,” Poe says, running to look out of the station’s viewport. Above the facility, a heavy cruiser looms half hidden in the russet sky. “No. No, no, no. Karabast!” Poe slams the command console as the cruiser tries to establish communications. “Beebee-Ate, jam their communications! Hurry! We have to get back up there to help the others.”

“What’s going on, Poe?” Leia asks.

Poe blasts the consoles, and the signal dies. He grips the comms unit tightly as he watches a squadron of TIE fighters dive down. A trap has been sprung, and they’re going to need all the luck they can get.

“I hate to say this, but-” Poe grimaces- “we’re gonna need those reinforcements.”


	3. Chapter 3

Rey stares over the rocky cliff out into the sea. The sun crests over the waves, splashing them with warm pinks and oranges. Rey smiles, at peace as she watches the monotony of it, completely unaware of the thunderheads rolling in above the crags. 

It’s the first time since Starkiller that she’s seen the island. It feels more familiar now than ever, even with the unfamiliar rain starting to pour; almost like home. Her nerves flutter at the thought of Luke Skywalker there, on that same island. If what Kylo Ren had said was true, she wanted to know why—why she, of all people, holds the key? 

The rain lightens and Rey looks up, grinning—expecting to see the sun. The clouds have rolled over too quickly, a slate gray swallowing up the sky. Rey’s smile slips. The air grows colder, and the only sensation she feels is the snow melting against her warm skin. The silence is broken by the first threatening drum of thunder. 

“ _I see it,”_ Kylo whispers—taunting—invading her mind. _“I see the island.”_

Rey’s heart trips and she staggers over the cracks in the cliff. She draws her lightsaber, her grip tight on the hilt. Every nerve under her skin is set alight with fear as she listens for the distorted crackle of Kylo’s saber.

“Master Skywalker?” 

She turns around, seeing only fleeting shadows in the falling snow. Was he ever there? Or was she just seeing ghosts? 

“Mum—dad?”

“ _Rey!_ ” 

Finn’s voice calls out to her and Rey runs towards it as the mountain at the top of the island crumbles and sprouts a dense forest. She hurries up the Falcon’s ramp right into Finn, before she looks back one last time and sees the forest caving in as Starkiller engulfs itself.

The shadows are there in the snow reaching out, calling for her. _Her parents._

“Finn, we have to go back,” she screams, fighting against Finn’s grip on her arms. “I have to save them!”

Rey fights to gain consciousness, struggling against the covers wrapped around her body until she realizes where she is. She’s at the Resistance base on D’Qar. Not on the _Millennium Falcon._

_The island hasn’t been destroyed—_ Rey tells herself, untangling her body from the sheets _—because it’s not Starkiller base._

 _No, her family was not killed in the explosion—_ Rey takes a deep, steady breath to focus herself _—because they never came back for her._

_That warning signal blaring in the background isn’t the Falcon overheating as she flies them all into the sun to save her family._

Rey stands on trembling legs, squeezes her eyes shut to stop the tears. Darkness settles heavy on her chest. It makes her want to claw and scratch at the invisible tethers that bind her and get herself away, far away until she’s safe.

The alarm doesn’t stop. It wails, nearly drowning out the flurry of movement outside the barracks door. Rey quickly puts her clothes back on, and grabs her blaster. She hesitates over the lightsaber, but something rises in her, pushing at the darkness that had clouded her dreams, and she takes it.

The base has been stripped clean. Rey looks all around to find the supplies and equipment lining the corridors gone, relocated while she was sleeping. The Resistance must be evacuating. 

She runs to the medbay, pushing past straggling technicians and officers who yell at her to get to the _Raddus._ She runs until she crashes right into a wall—a big, hairy wall.

“Chewie!” Rey gasps. She looks around the medical bay. Everything has been cleared out, and what can’t be moved has been left behind. The bacta tanks stand, emptied of both patients and bacta. Rey thinks of Finn, heart hurting. She hopes he’s okay, that he’s had enough time to heal. 

“What’s happened? Where did they take Finn?”

Chewie tells Rey that he helped move Finn to the _Raddus_. They’ve begun the evacuation, there’s no telling when the First Order will arrive.

Rey takes off towards the command center despite Chewie’s protests, hoping to catch a glimpse of Leia. She can’t just sit around waiting to leave. In the desert, that means death.

“I want all personnel to be evacuated in the next hour,” Leia is saying when Rey runs into the command center, breathless. “And I want Blue Squadron up in fifteen. If we have any chance of saving Black Squadron, it’s now or never.”

“Leia.” Her voice comes out a little too loud, a little too sharp—a little too scared.

The whole room turns to Rey. “What’s going on?”

The grave look on Leia’s face speaks volumes.

“Black Squadron was ambushed on Kril’Dor. We’re sending reinforcements, but there isn’t much time and we need to have some sort of defense if the First Order arrives.”

 _Poe._ Poe is in danger too. The entire Resistance is vulnerable right now.

“Let me help,” she says firmly.

Chewbacca roars, crossing his arms.

“Chewie, wait.” Leia sighs, turning to Rey again. “You know I’d rather have you going to Ahch-To as soon as you can.”

Rey shakes her head. “I can’t. I need to know that everyone is safe. Finn, Poe, Beebee-Ate, the Resistance. If there’s no one to come back to, why go? I don’t want to run from this anymore.” 

Leia turns to Chewbacca, who throws his hands up in the air in frustration. There’s a little grin on Leia’s lips when she turns back to Rey. 

“There’s an old T-65 X-wing in the hangar. If you can handle the _Falcon_ , you can handle that. I’ll let Blue Squadron know they’ll have a new pilot.”

D’Qar’s hangar bay and tarmac are stripped almost bare. Only a few small craft remain while cargo is hauled to the transports. The T-65 is there in the corner, as promised. Rey’s heart pounds as she looks over the model. It’s from the days of the Empire, with the longer nose and separate s-foils. The same model she had lost hours tinkering with back in the Goazon Badlands. Scratched and battered, it looks like it’s seen many battles even after its better days were long gone. There’s already a technician working on the fuel line hooked up to it when Rey runs over. “She’s all ready, Miss,” the tech tells her.

Rey looks up, taking in the starfighter. She’s overcome by a sense of familiarity before she pauses, uncertain. She never left the sand in one before. 

“Oi!” Rey yelps when something hard knocks into her calf. She looks down and sees a droid, an R2 model with green markings compared to Artoo’s blue. The droid beeps at her, speaking so fast that she almost has trouble understanding the binary.

“You know Beebee-Ate and Poe Dameron? I know they’re in trouble, I’m going to go help them.”

The droid whistles at her and introduces itself as Ivee. Rey looks back at the X-wing, painfully aware of her disadvantages. She doesn’t have the proper training, and Chewie took Artoo with him. It’s better that way, since Artoo has the coordinates of Ahch-To.

Ivee whistles again.

“Actually.” Rey pauses, looking down at Ivee. “I do need a droid. Will you help me?”

Ivee whistles in panic, backing away from Rey.

“What? Why not? You’re an astromech, flying is what you’re built for!” Rey huffs, beckoning for Ivee to come closer. When it does, she admits: “We’re running out of time. If I’m going to help them, I’m going to need some help too. Hyperspace calculations aren’t my strong point.”

“I think Beebee-Ate would appreciate it,” Leia suggests.

Rey turns to see Leia walking towards them. Ivee beeps indignantly; Beebee-Ate already owes it too many favors to count. It stutters over its binary for an excuse before Leia quirks an eyebrow and it pauses. It whistles low, and sways in contemplation. Finally, it rolls over in resignation to the technician to prepare for takeoff. 

“Thank you.” Rey breathes a sigh of relief. “I don’t know if it would’ve listened to me.”

“Ivee is pretty easy to convince. Beebee-Ate talks it into just about everything,” Leia says, turning back to Rey.

“You might need this,” Leia continues, handing Rey a helmet. Rey takes it, feeling the familiar weight of it in her hands. “It was Luke’s.” 

Rey stares at the helmet in wonder and touches the visor. The Alliance insignia is a faded red, having stood the test of time, not the sands of Jakku like her old one.

“It’s for me?”

“You’ll need it, trust me.” Leia smiles.

Rey puts it on and it fits perfectly, not oversized to the point of wobbling around her head like hers was.

Before Rey can say anything else, the roar of ion engines comes from the A-wing fleet. Rey turns to see the spacecraft marshal directing the first A-wing from the base. 

“That’s Blue Squadron now,” Leia says. “They’re expecting you. May the Force be with you, Rey. We’ll be waiting for you.”

A warmth settles under Rey’s skin, giving her good reason to smile. She nods before climbing up the ladder to fit herself in the X-wing cockpit. She can hear Ivee in the droid socket beeping furiously about how Beebee-Ate owes it big time. Her stomach flips just like it had when she had finally convinced Unkar Plutt to let her into the flight sim when she was just seven. She reaches down and grips the controls, finding them as familiar as ever, and she bursts into a wider grin that not even Ivee’s complaining can sour.

  


* * *

  


Blue Squadron drops out of hyperspace within the hour and Rey gasps when she sees the planet. The whole planet is green; she can only imagine what that looks like inside atmo.

“Kril’Dor,” Tallie, the squadron leader, supplies. “Black Squadron needs our help to get the fuel back to the fleet at the rendezvous point. Defend Admiral Statura and the convoy for as long as they need. We need to get in and get out as fast as we can, there’s no telling if the First Order is going to chase us here as well. That heavy cruiser over there has probably already sent a report.”

The First Order could arrive at their base on D’Qar at any moment, finding the Resistance fleet largely defenseless before they had a chance to escape. Then the First Order can just pick off the rest of the fighters at Kril’Dor. This fuel run is a huge gamble. Rey just hopes that they’ll be able to get out in time before that happens.

Despite the tension on the comms, Ivee beeps as they break atmo and the lush green they had seen from space bursts into a bright orange as intense as the sunset on Jakku. Rey’s eyes widen as she looks around at the clouds from the cockpit’s viewport, amazed.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, Ivee,” Rey says, listening as Ivee whistles and chirps about gas and atmospheric pressure.

“Blue Squadron, form up and cut the chatter,” Tallie says. The comms go dead silent and Rey focuses on the mining platform—and the battle above it—as it comes into view. “Rey, you’ll be on Ziff’s wing.”

“Tallie!” Poe’s voice breaks over the comms, excited and relieved. “Stars, are we glad to see you guys.”

“A total blue milk run, huh Poe?” Tallie jokes. A swarm of TIEs is alerted to Blue Squadron’s presence. The fighters break off from the dogfight and head straight to the fleet.

“We were handling it! Mostly...” Poe admits. “Just watch that heavy cruiser!”

There’s no time for much else.

Yolo Ziff breaks off from the squadron as the TIEs cut through their formation. Fighters from both sides are shot down before Rey even jams her control yoke to complete a hard turn and follow Ziff. He intercepts an enemy TIE fighter, dodging the fire until he hits it with his own blasters, exploding it just moments before they collide.

“Good shot!” Rey cheers. “Oh—oh no.” 

She barely avoids the debris flying past and lets out a breath she hadn’t felt constricting her lungs. While she recovers, another TIE locks on to Ziff.

“I’ve got one on my tail!” He curses. Shame slices through Rey and she grits her teeth to dull the sting. She should have prevented that, but she had taken too much time to recover.

“I’ve got it!” Rey steels herself. Ivee beeps frantically, and Rey hauls back on the yoke, forcing the X-wing into a steep climb to catch up with the TIE. The combat display looks just as she always pictured. This time the readouts are real. The TIE fighter is weaving in and out of her target-lock—with better skill than she had ever given the imaginary enemies on Jakku or in the run down simulators Unkar Plutt hoarded. Another pilot’s life is at stake, she can’t let any of them down. 

“Trigger,” she has to remind herself. Her eyes flick from the viewport to the combat display. Her heart slams against her ribs. Her fingers slip against the trigger. The sensor beeps, but Rey’s already seen it. Ivee is screaming at her about it. She pulls on the trigger and fires as the TIE crosses directly into her line of fire. A wing breaks off, and then the fuel cell explodes as the red blasts hit their target dead-on. Rey ducks as the debris hits the X-wing’s viewport.

“Ivee, how’s the ship? Is anything seriously damaged?” she asks once she rights the X-wing, checking the damage report on her panel.

Ivee beeps in the negative. Some wiring along the port thrust engine was exposed when some of the debris ripped the plating from it, but it’s nothing that it can’t fix—if it survives, it adds bitterly.

“Woo! How’re you holding up back there, Rey?” Ziff’s slow drawl eases Rey from her thoughts, loosening some of the tension in her shoulders as she straightens out her formation. The adrenaline takes over her and she finds herself grinning as she swoops back to fly behind him.

“I think I’m getting the hang of this!” 

“Good, because it looks like we’ve got more incoming on our tails!”

Rey’s X-wing rocks with the aftershocks of contact with the blaster bolt from another TIE fighter. Ivee screeches just as a bolt misses its dome. Rey jerks the X-wing out of the line of fire to follow Ziff. Just as quickly as the confidence had come, it’s gone, leaving Rey trembling and terrified.

“Are you alright Ivee?” she asks, thrusting the yoke forward to force the X-wing into a nosedive. Her eye catches a string of expletives in droidspeak on her translator, and she can’t help but agree as her stomach drops with the ship. “Hold on!”

She wishes she was on the _Falcon_ with Finn so he could take the gunner position while she concentrates on flying. It’s not so easy flying and shooting when practice consisted of faulty flight simulators and pretending to shoot at mirages in the sand dunes.

When she sees the TIE fighter in her targeting display, she pulls the trigger and fires. A shot hits the fuel tank and the TIE explodes, but Rey anticipates it this time and moves out of the way of the debris.

A black X-wing streaks across her viewport, tailing another TIE as it swoops past.

“Nice shot, Rey!” Poe says. “I’ve got the one behind you.”

Ivee confirms Poe’s kill and Rey straightens out to form back up with Ziff.

The TIE Rey has been chasing weaves to avoid a direct hit and Rey looks down at her targeting computer only to find it dead.

“Oh no.” The sensors must have been damaged when she took those hits. Dread settles in the pit of her stomach as she tries flicking the switch on and off. “Ivee, I’ve lost my combat display, can you do anything?”

Ivee screeches, telling Rey that they’ve got another one directly on their tail. Her instincts scream at her to cut a sharp right. She almost does, but something else deeper in her core tells her to reach out and look inward. Everything falls silent around her—the screaming of engines, craft getting blown up, the fear—until she can barely hear her own heartbeat. Her eyes fall closed and she sees Kylo Ren, the glow from their lightsabers in his eyes as they both struggled for the upper hand.

_The Force._

She focuses and tries to find the TIE in the Force. She barely registers Poe and Ziff yelling at her through the comms, telling her to get the _pfask_ out of there. She breathes out, and reaches. Suddenly it all becomes clear, she can feel the fighter behind her, and the one in front of her.

“Don’t worry, Ivee. I can see it.”

 _No you can’t!_ scrawls across the translator.

Rey banks a hard left and looks over her shoulder just in time to see the TIE she was chasing blow up behind her. She swerves and sees Poe’s black X-wing shooting down the TIE that had been tailing her.

“Thank you.” Rey breathes a sigh of relief. She grins, dizzy with triumph. The fleet of TIEs has significantly reduced since Blue Squadron arrived.

“You gave me a perfect shot,” Poe says. “That was some pretty fancy flying, you learn that on Jakku?”

“Alright, Dameron,” Tallie breaks in, amused. “Don’t lay it on the newbie too hard. She’s in my squadron and we’ve still got a rescue to complete. Admiral Statura, are the transports loaded and ready to move out?”

“They are, Commander Lintra,” Statura confirms.

Rey ignores the droidspeak translator, which is now being flooded by Ivee scolding Beebee-Ate. She did it. Everything turned out alright, too. She had luck on her side and—and the Force. She had felt so sure of herself, calm, connected. Somehow she could feel the emotions swirling around her and the pulsing of the starcraft engines. It was the safest she had felt the whole battle. 

“Ion torpedo, coming in hot!” Tallie shouts. The green flare arcs over the squadrons and the starcraft break apart.

“Guys, I can’t shake it!” Yolo Ziff’s voice cuts through the comms, strained. 

Rey twists her head just in time to see the torpedo make contact. The explosion leaves nothing behind, rocking the craft closest to where Ziff’s A-wing had been. Rey blinks away the tears stinging her eyes, but there’s nothing she can do about the ache in her chest.

“That heavy cruiser’s going to finish us if we don’t get out of here quick,” Poe says, voice gone hard. 

“Set coordinates for rendezvous point Alpha,” Tallie says. “Transmitting coordinates to you, Black Squadron.”

Rey takes a deep breath and focuses on preparing the X-wing for the jump to hyperspace while Ivee begins calculations. _You can’t save everyone,_ she tells herself, knowing there will be another face she’ll see at night when she can’t sleep. That’s for later. Right now, she won’t think about the boy, Teng Malar, she couldn’t save from from the steelpeckers. She won’t think about Han Solo, whom she should have never let leave her side. She won’t think about Yolo Ziff. She needs to survive.

“Once the calculations are set, jump,” Poe says. “Don’t wait, just go.”

“Poe, it’s dangerous to jump from atmo!” Jess warns.

“Do it!” Poe orders. 

The first few A-wings jump, their sonic booms deafening. Rey does as she’s told, despite Ivee’s protests, and engages the hyperdrive. Kril’Dor becomes an orange, then green streak across her viewport. They’re leaving someone behind, someone they couldn’t save, and Rey—she’s not quite sure if she can take another loss.

  


* * *

  


If Rey ever wanted to try and find a planet even more desolate and isolated than Jakku, Crait is a good place to start. From space, the planet’s surface looks gray and whitewashed, and there’s no brilliant atmospheric pressure change like on Kril’Dor. Flying across the surface, it’s more of the same grey and white tones until they come up on a ridge decorated with a rusted durasteel bay door.

Blue and Black Squadron are silent over the comms as the bay doors grind open and the comms operator grants them permission to land.

Poe is right in front of Rey when her feet are on solid ground again.

“You came to help us,” Poe says. “Leia actually let you?”

“I told her I had to,” Rey says. “Finn would have done the same thing. And Ivee needed a pilot.”

Poe seems impressed. “Beebee-Ate says Ivee hates flying, especially after what happened with Jess.” 

He looks out to the group of pilots forming. “Thank you, Rey.” He claps a friendly hand on her shoulder, warm and solid. “You were great out there. We could use a good pilot like you if you weren’t, you know, busy going off to find Luke Skywalker and save the galaxy.”

Rey isn’t quite sure what to say, especially with Poe grinning at her like that. Her success at her first attempt piloting an X-wing in battle was nothing but beginner’s luck, but Poe gently guides her to the other pilots.

“Looks like we’ve got another ace pilot on our hands, boys and girls,” Snap says with a big grin. “That nosedive was really something, Rey.”

“And the way you dodged that TIE near the end. You’ve got some skill,” Jess agrees. “If you ever have some free time, you’re always welcome here with Black Squadron. We could use a pilot like you.”

“Stars know we need ‘em,” Snap sighs. Everyone falls silent when Tallie and Blue Squadron join the group. Snap is the first to walk over to Tallie. “I’m sorry. Ziff was a good pilot and a better friend.”

“Thanks.” Tallie offers a wan smile and takes his hug. “The mission was a success, mostly. That’s all that he would’ve wanted.”

“It’s what we all want,” Jess says.

Poe says something, but Rey looks over his shoulder, seeing Leia walking towards them.

She takes her time, comforting Tallie and promising her a memorial for Yolo Ziff. Rey averts her eyes, not wanting to feel like an intruder.

Then Leia turns to her. Rey is suddenly, embarrassingly, aware of the helmet still on her head. She peels the helmet from her damp forehead and offers it back to Leia, hoping that she doesn’t look as flustered as she feels.

“Keep it.” Leia shakes her head. “You’ll need it.”

“General Organa,” Poe says, “I said we’d pull it off, didn’t I?” 

Leia rolls her eyes, but humors him. “You did manage to pull it off, Poe. With a little bit of help.” She turns towards Rey and the rest of the squadrons. “Yolo’s sacrifice isn’t wasted. You’ve all given the Resistance resources we’ve desperately needed for a while now, and more importantly—time.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, Commander Dameron and Commander Lintra need to debrief in my office. I know Rey is going to want to report to the medbay to see how Finn is doing. You’re all dismissed.”

The other pilots salute to the General, and Leia gives Rey a small smile. Rey feels it—something’s changed. Poe looks torn, looking back at Rey as he follows Leia into her office.

Ivee beeps as it rolls over to her, teetering excitedly. Rey grins, looking back at it as it follows her.

“Your first time out in the field in a while, really? I hadn’t noticed, you handled it like a pro.”

The irony goes right over Ivee’s dome as it goes over to check on Beebee-Ate, smug and proud. Rey is just happy that it didn’t come back totally traumatized.

Rey runs to the medbay. Dr. Kalonia looks up from her work and smiles at her when she rushes through the blast doors.

“Is Finn okay?” Rey asks, looking around the bay. There are no bacta tanks here, only medical cots. Kalonia takes Rey to a smaller section lined with beds. Finn lies on the nearest one.

“We removed him from bacta for the evacuation,” Kalonia explains. Rey sits down in the chair, touching Finn’s arm gently. “His spine is mostly healed, we’re just letting him rest. He’ll be up and about in no time.”

“Thank you,” Rey says.

Kalonia leaves them be and Rey looks over Finn. His chest rises and falls steadily, breathing, alive. His skin is warm against Rey’s own, not like on Starkiller when she knelt beside him in the snow, believing that they were both going to die there. 

“You wouldn’t believe what we did today, Finn,” she whispers with a smile, hoping that he can hear her. “We took on a whole tibanna mining platform on Kril’Dor. The Resistance won’t need to worry about fuel for a while, I hope.

“And your friend, Poe Dameron. We wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without him. He’s the most amazing pilot I’ve ever seen. I hope that one day we’ll both get the chance to fly with him again, together.”

Rey rests her head in the crook of Finn’s arm, the soft and steady beeping of the monitors drawing out a yawn. She feels it now—a bone deep tiredness quickly spreading through her. The adrenaline rush from the battle had tapered off once they landed on Crait, safe for the moment.

A medical droid comes over to check Finn’s vitals.

“All vitals optimal, condition is stable,” it reports to Kalonia. 

Rey exhales and her eyes slip shut.

“Rey?”

Fingers brush softly at her shoulder and Rey startles awake again. Her hand aches, and she slowly releases Finn’s hand from her death grip, flexing her fingers to ease the soreness. She can never sleep peacefully anymore, not with the nightmare of Starkiller replaying in her head every night. The lights of the _Falcon_ shining on them through the dense forest brush fade behind her eyes as she blinks and looks up.

“Hey,” Poe says. He offers Rey a cup of caf and a small smile. “How are you feeling?”

Rey takes a grateful gulp from the mug. She doesn’t feel any particular way at the moment, just tired, neck and shoulders sore from the awkward angle she slept at.

“Better,” she says. “How did the debrief go? Is General Organa happy with the fuel?”

“We’ve bought a decent amount of time,” he says. “But tibanna gas won’t replace half the fleet of X-wings destroyed on Starkiller or the pilots. Besides, the General thinks that the First Order has some kind of idea where we are now because we left that heavy cruiser. If they do, I don’t think they’ll give us a lot of time to pack up and leave again.”

“Then we’ll have to figure something out,” Rey says. “We need to move before the First Order destroys everything.”

Poe grins at her appreciatively. 

“Don’t worry, Rey. We will. But you have to go find Luke Skywalker so we can win this thing. That’s more important. We’re just here to hold down the fort.”

Rey smiles, but says, “That’s an awful lot of responsibility to throw on someone.” Luke has been gone for this long, would he even want to be found now?

Poe’s smile slips into something more melancholic.

“I know. I know how it feels. I felt like no one wanted to listen to me in the New Republic. It was like they didn’t want to see that something like the Empire could happen again. But General Organa saw the same thing, too. She had my back, and we all have yours. We’ll do whatever it takes to help you so we can stop this thing.”

Rey is about to thank him when Beebee-Ate rolls in, bumping right into their legs, greeting them with an excited string of beeps and whistles.

“I wasn’t gone for that long, buddy,” Poe grins. The mood is effectively lightened and Rey is happy for it. “You wanna see Finn?” 

Beebee-Ate chirps out an affirmative and Poe moves aside.

“I hope the caf is okay,” he says, changing the subject as if it’s too sensitive for the droid somehow. Rey blinks once, twice, surprised at the turn of conversation, as Beebee-Ate titters at Finn. “Sorry it’s only lukewarm. Have you eaten anything? No one saw you in the mess.”

Rey looks down at Finn, embarrassment burning her cheeks. She hadn’t realized how long she had been sleeping.

“Tell you what,” Poe says. “Go grab something to eat, I’ll look after him for a bit.”

Rey gets up, reluctant to leave Finn’s side and Poe, sensing this, puts his hand on her shoulder. It’s warm, gentle.

“Don’t worry, Rey. He’ll pull through. He has to.” 


	4. Chapter 4

Poe swings his fist and the punching bag flies, chain rattling with the force of the blow. He groans in pain, steadying the bag before he flexes the knuckle that just cracked.

It doesn’t make sense. A tibanna mining operation sold out for a chance to capture Black Squadron? It’s not worth the attention of any high ranking First Order officer like General Hux or Captain Phasma. That doesn’t leave Poe with a lot of suspects. _Any_ suspects.

 _Agent Terex?_ No. Even with all of the bad blood between Terex and Black Squadron, he wouldn’t resort to working with the First Order again just to have his revenge. He’ll be working on his own somewhere. Poe can’t blame him; he wouldn’t like it if someone stuck a mind control device in his brain and a shock collar around his neck either.

Poe massages his knuckle until the pain is numbed and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He raises his fists again, and his left hand connects with the bag properly this time.

 _Commander Malarus?_ Her name leaves a sour taste in Poe’s mouth. She had been the one holding Terex’s leash during the search for Lor San Tekka, and she had the nerve to steal and wreck _Black One_ to get the job done. She’s stuck on Cato Neimoidia rotting in one of House Reya’s vault cells after what she pulled, if the narcotic withdrawal hasn’t killed her first. 

Baron Reya claimed the vault was impenetrable. That’s not entirely true, but it’s a pretty fair bet that one person won’t be able to make it out without help from the outside. Malarus won’t be a problem for a long time.

“ _You need to learn to let things go, Poe_ ,” Leia had told him in the privacy of her office. “ _For the sake of your Squadron and the Resistance. Don’t get caught up in old rivalries. I won’t risk anything like Kril’Dor again.”_

And Tallie had agreed with her.

Maybe Leia was right. Maybe the First Order really did risk a small mining facility to capture some rebels. 

Poe steadies the bag and ignores the dull ache in his muscles as he goes for a drink of water, vaguely aware of someone else entering the training room.

Beebee-Ate rolls in front of him, beeping proudly.

“Hey, buddy. You find anything from the scanner malfunctions?”

Beebee-Ate whirrs positively.

“A remote signal, huh? To the heavy cruiser while it waited on the other side of the planet?” Poe frowns, unwinding the wrapping from his hands. “Where did the signal come from? We didn’t detect any First Order sensors.”

Beebee-Ate replies that it couldn’t detect the signal’s source, the scanner malfunction overloaded the feed.

“So we know a couple things. One: We were set up.” 

Beebee-Ate nods.

“And two, someone had to have known about it.” He receives a chirp in agreement. “But how did they find out?”

Beebee-Ate is silent for a moment, the mechanics inside its body whirring quietly while it computes the data. Poe grins when it finally offers a solution.

“Yes! They had to have planted information.” Poe scratches Beebee-Ate’s belly affectionately. He knew it would have gotten it right. Then Beebee-Ate whistles inquisitively and Poe’s smile falters. 

“Yeah, buddy. That could mean it’s an inside job. Someone had to know we really needed that fuel. And I have a pretty good feeling about who. Go to the command center and then meet me in the hangar bay in ten, okay?”

Beebee-Ate tilts its dome as Poe tells it exactly what to do.

“Don’t worry about what I’m doing,” Poe says. “I’ll be there waiting for you.”

He finishes dressing once Beebee-Ate is gone and heads to the medbay.

Everything is still disorganized and dusty because of the last minute evacuation, but the patients are sleeping soundly when Poe sneaks to the medical container. Much to his relief, the code is still the same when Poe punches it in and the container opens with a click. Poe grabs a stim shot and presses it to his neck. He stows the empty cartridge in his jacket and shivers as the first wave of fresh adrenaline courses through him, washing away the bone-deep exhaustion. He blinks, vision clear again, feeling like a new man.

He erases the container’s activity from the datalog, a pro at it now, even though he knows that there’s a slim chance he’ll get away with it anyway. He just won’t come and bother Kalonia for a while. At least not until he can get her some more supplies.

Beebee-Ate isn’t there by the _Little Vixen_ when Poe walks into the hangar. The bay is deserted save for the faint rustle and whirring of tools on the far side, probably a tech working late into the night to do some much needed repairs on the ski speeders. Poe ditches his jacket and climbs into the transport to get it ready for takeoff. He wishes he could take _Black One_ , but covert means covert. And _Black One_ isn’t exactly covert anymore. After a quick comms check, Tev’s tired voice breaks the relative silence.

“Poe? What on Malachor are you doing?”

“Need a favor, Tev. Can you open the blast doors for me?”

Tev yawns. 

“I never received word about any takeoffs.” 

“Well it’s short notice, so now you do,” Poe says easily. Tev won’t look into this too much. “General Organa’s request, not mine.”

“Copy that,” Tev huffs. “Just make it quick. They’ll be open in five, for no longer than two. There’s a nasty salt storm heading our way, and if the ships are exposed they’re ruined and I’m a pillar of salt.”

Poe grins. “I copy, Tev.”

Once everything is prepped and humming perfectly, he climbs out of the cockpit, hearing someone coming towards the _Vixen._

“Hey, buddy. What kept you? No one was asking questions, right?”

“I—no. Although I wasn’t doing anything that would warrant some kind of suspicion.”

“Rey?” Poe turns. Rey gives him a small grin, coming closer. She’s still in the clothes that Poe had found her in when he had checked on her and Finn in the medbay earlier. “It’s late,” is all he can think to say. “Still working on the _Falcon?”_

Rey fixes her gaze on the _Little Vixen_ , as if the shuttle might have the answer she’s looking for.

“Can’t sleep. I… heard something. I just wanted to see what it was. I could ask you the same thing.”

The barracks are in a different quadrant, over the sodium mines, but Poe doesn’t bring it up. “You should try and get some sleep.”

“For what? I’m still waiting for the _Falcon_ ’s clearance. And the “modifications” it’s gone through—” Rey shakes her head in disgust.

Poe can’t help but smile at that.

“The one thing you learn in the Resistance is that it’s not all about the battles and the glory and the explosions. Waiting is half the battle.”

“I know all about waiting,” Rey says. 

“Ah _kriff,”_ Poe mutters, scratching at his scalp. “Right. Jakku.”

Rey changes the subject quickly.

“You said people might start asking questions? What are you doing?”

Poe looks up at the _Vixen_ and shrugs. “Just working, some minor repairs, you know?” 

Rey scowls and _oh,_ she’s cute when she can see right through him.

“With the engines running? Were you planning on blowing the whole hangar up?”

Poe grins, but before he can spin the whole story about how he was checking the engines, Beebee-Ate rolls into the room and reports that it was able to successfully download the info from Snap’s last reconnaissance mission.

“That’s great, buddy, but uh. I didn’t ask—”

“Are you spying on someone?” Rey narrows her eyes. 

Beebee-Ate answers affirmatively.

“Hey,” Poe frowns. “Whose side are you on? And technically, no.”

Beebee-Ate chirps up at him, asking him if he’s going to tell her.

“Tell me what?” Rey asks. Beebee-Ate swivels its dome between them.

Poe sighs. 

“Alright. They knew we were coming on Kril’Dor somehow. Did you notice a malfunction in your scanner?”

“I was in the T-65, more than just my scanner was malfunctioning.” 

Poe laughs. It’s been ages since he’s flown that X-wing, and it was already a bucket of bolts back then, too. “When we entered into range of the facilities on Kril’Dor, all the pilots reported their scanners going haywire for a split second. It was almost enough to miss.”

Rey chews at her lip, lost in thought. “As soon as you had that malfunction, were the Imperials notified?”

Poe nods. “Bee-bee-Ate checked the logs. A signal was sent to the First Order cruiser at the same time, and a squad of TIEs were all ready to greet us at the facility when we arrived.”

Beebee-Ate chimes in with agreement, saying that the First Order could have had sensors that emitted a short-range jamming signal. The scanner anomaly could have occurred when Black Squadron came into jamming range, triggering a signal to the heavy cruiser.

“It’s a theory,” Poe says. He shakes his head. Bee-bee-Ate hadn’t been certain where the signal to the cruiser originated. It had been Snap who said his droid thought the malfunction was caused by entering the planet’s atmosphere. He was also the one who brought the intel about the mining operation at Kril’Dor. That’s why Poe has to find this contact of Snap’s and see if they may have any ties that Snap may have missed—or overlooked. “The junk bosses on Jakku used to have remote sensors spread out over the Graveyard. They would track the scavengers he had bought. To keep them from running.”

“That makes sense,” Poe admits, “but something’s still not adding up. The commanding officers there weren’t let in on the entire plan.”

“It’s possible,” Rey muses. “Collateral damage. Most of the scavengers never knew their movements were being tracked—they just thought they were being watched and ratted out by each other.”

Halvo seemed to have been expecting them, so he had to know about the sensors. Rey has a good point though; Poe isn’t so sure if Halvo knew his own facility was set up as bait as well.

“Why is this all so important?” Rey asks.

“I need to know how they knew we were looking for fuel. If they have someone on the inside—” Poe doesn’t want to think about that. It’s a possibility. Not an absolute. “Snap Wexley was the one doing recon for the mission, scouting out vulnerable First Order outposts.”

“Do you really think he would have done something like that?” Rey asks.

Poe exhales. A weight on his chest still remains. “I hope not.”

Beebee-Ate chirps, tilting its head.

“No, he doesn’t have to know. Right Beebee-Ate?” Poe looks down when he doesn’t get an answer. “Beebee?”

Beebee-Ate beeps, reluctantly complying.

“He won’t know, buddy,” Poe promises. “And what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Or his feelings. No one saw you, right?”

Poe isn’t sure who he’s trying to convince more. They don’t need someone else selling out the Resistance, blackmailed or not. They can’t afford another Oddy Muva. Not now.

Beebee-Ate beeps in the negative. It doesn’t think anyone suspects anything, but Poe knows that Leia will as soon as she finds the _Little Vixen_ missing, and she’ll know everything after she checks the logs to find that Beebee-Ate had accessed Snap’s recon data. She probably senses something _right now_ in her sleep _._ Poe counts himself lucky when he considers she’d never pursued Jedi training. She already knows him inside and out as it is.

“Just let me grab my things,” Rey says quickly. 

“Wait, what?” Poe grabs her arm before she dashes off. “No. You’re not coming.”

Rey sidesteps him, gently prying his grip from her bicep.

“ _Let me help_. All I’ve been doing is pulling bits of Starkiller from the _Falcon_ and repairing droids with Zari. I’m not very busy.”

Poe laughs, even though he knows he shouldn’t. Beebee-Ate beeps, coming to Rey’s defence. A part of him is only a little jealous. 

“Beebee-Ate is right, you’ve already told me everything. I can handle myself. I want to help, for Yolo.”

A low rumble echoes through the hangar as the blast doors start to open. The wind howls its way in through the entrance. There’s no way Poe is going to be able to talk Rey out of it now, even if he had wanted to. There’s no time and well… he wouldn’t mind the backup.

Poe sighs. Leia’s going to kill him.

He grabs his jacket and motions to the starhopper.

“What’s that?” Rey asks, looking down.

“What’s—uhm.” _Kriff._ The empty stim shot fell on the floor. Poe picks it up, letting Rey get a better look. “Stim shot. It helps if you need to be alert for more than twelve hours once in a while. It’s good for longer missions,” he adds quickly.

“I know what it is.” Rey grabs it, examining the casing. Poe digs his fingers into his hips, looking guiltily around the hangar. Beebee-Ate looks her intently. “We had stimulants on Jakku, but if you were smart you never took anything if you didn’t know what was in it—and you never knew what was in it.”

The _Little Vixen_ ’s comms buzz with Tev’s clearance.

“Two minutes, Dameron,” Tev warns.

“Alright, you’re in,” Poe says to Rey, snatching the empty stim shot out of her hand. “We’re taking the starhopper.”

Rey grins.

Leia’s going to _kill_ him.

  


* * *

  


Poe stretches out with a big yawn as the _Vixen_ drops out of hyperspace, placing the datapad with Snap’s records at his feet. Kafrene is just ahead, illuminated at its heart. Rey is by his side immediately, staring out the viewport over his shoulder. He doesn’t think he’s seen anyone get as excited about seeing a trading outpost before.

“How much spice do you think comes through here in a standard year?” Rey asks. “Do you think we’ll meet any smugglers? Is Snap’s contact a smuggler?”

Stunned, Poe doesn’t have anything smart to say for a few moments. “Uh, yeah? Maybe. I’m not really in the habit of trusting smugglers.” When he sees the affronted look on Rey’s face, he quickly adds, “Except Han Solo. Obviously.”

“I tried to smuggle myself off Jakku once,” Rey says as they disembark from the _Vixen_. “It was the closest I ever got to leaving.”

Poe watches Rey’s face carefully. There’s a twinge of regret.

“Your handler found you?” Poe asks after a pause.

“Handler?” Rey glares at him.

Poe shakes his head. That’s not what he meant. _Words, Dameron._ “I had to get myself off Jakku when Finn and I crashed and got separated. I saw the kind of work that went on.”

“I didn’t want my parents to find out I had gone. When they came back.” Rey’s voice has gone quiet. 

Poe remembers waiting for Shara and Kes for what felt like forever as a kid; waiting to run into their arms and listen to their stories about the war and Luke Skywalker and Generals Organa, Solo, and Calrissian. They always came back, until Shara didn’t. But that was no one’s fault. 

Poe puts his hand on her shoulder and offers nothing more. Pity is an ugly thing to receive. Shara’s wedding ring hangs heavy from his neck under his shirt.

He loses Rey’s attention as they enter into the crowded market. Poe watches as she flits around the stalls and vendors with renewed excitement, hoping she forgets their conversation as they make their way to the cantina. 

“The First Order are here,” Rey says, looking back at Poe.

Poe nods when he sees the two riot troopers patrolling the street. “I’m not surprised. The Empire was interested in Kafrene too.”

“Snap’s records show that he met with an informant here,” Poe says after she finds her way to his side again. 

Beebee-Ate beeps, indicating that he had managed to send a message out and get them a meeting. 

“We go in, question them, find out who their sources are, and get out. I—” Poe turns around and stops dead in his tracks. “Where’d you get that?”

Rey, caught red-handed with a half-eaten roasted paddy frog on a stick, looks only slightly guilty.

“One of the stands had them lying about.” Poe’s stomach rolls as she crunches on a leg. “I don’t have any credits, but don’t worry, I left a compressor from the _Falcon_ for them.”

Poe opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Rey offers out the paddy frog with a big grin; its hind legs jiggle. “Are you hungry? I can get you one as well.”

“Uh. No. No thanks. I ate a while back. C’mon, the informant’s this way.” Poe nudges her arm and starts leading them away from the street market, quicker now. The last thing they need is extra attention because of a roasted Klatooine paddy frog.

“This is the place?” Rey asks. She stares up at the cantina sign. The door is dingy, dented in some places. Blaster marks score the outside walls and the lights flicker in and out, desperate to be replaced. Poe doesn’t care about any of that. He cares about the two stormtroopers walking around aimlessly. Too close.

Beebee-Ate warbles nervously.

“Yeah buddy, I know it looks a little funny.” Poe has a bad feeling about this. He steps closer to Rey as they walk past the the troopers on their way into the cantina. Rey tenses with their proximity, and one look at her tells Poe that she can feel it too.

The cantina provides them the cover they need. Drunk smugglers and traders mill about, enjoying the music and the sabacc. Poe distinctly hears a deal for crates of spice being made in a dim corner and his eyebrows shoot up at the price. Rey looks like she’s forgotten about the stormtroopers as she admires the scene with bright eyes and open ears.

“Forty-five thousand?” she whispers. “That’s, that’s—”

“Illegal,” Poe supplies. Rey rolls her eyes. “Also dangerous; the First Order is cracking down on spice traders, harder than the Empire ever did.”

“I’ve heard even smugglers who dropped their cargo were boarded and arrested,” Rey agrees. “Pilots who came to the outpost were always talking about partners or contacts just disappearing, never hearing from them again.”

Poe nods gravely. He isn’t resisting for the rights of spice traders or smugglers, but the implications—people just disappearing over forged reports and incriminating documents. That’s not the kind of galaxy he wants to live in.

Beebee-Ate bumps his leg and trills, pointing its photoreceptor towards the far corner.

“That him?” Poe asks.

Beebee-Ate beeps in the affirmative. Poe pushes past it and Rey, fists clenching. Snap’s contact—a Sullustan, worse for wear, nursing a drink already—looks up and sees him. The man startles and tries to scurry out of the booth he’s in, right into Poe’s arms.

“Anden Neevan? Sit. I thought you were expecting us,” Poe says, voice saccharine. He pulls his blaster and digs the barrel into the Sullustan’s hip. “Don’t waste your drink, we won’t be here long anyway.”

Neevan’s huge dark eyes flit between him and Rey. Slowly, he sits back down. Poe sits next to him while Rey takes the opposite side of the crescent-shaped booth.

“Look, I don’t know who you’re working for, but I don’t have the money right now,” Neevan grumbles, looking at his drink with distaste.

“We’re not bounty hunters,” Rey says. 

“We’re here for some info,” Poe clarifies, watching as the Sullustan begrudgingly lifts the mug. “Some info you gave to Snap Wexley.”

Neevan nearly chokes on the rest of his drink. “The Resistance? Kriff, that’s even worse—look, the only guy I deal with is Snap. You want intel, you ask him to come.”

“Yeah, well. Snap’s a bit busy and I figured I was the next best thing.” Poe reholsters his blaster under the table. “Look buddy, we just wanna talk. Kril’Dor: ever heard of it?”

Neevan stays silent. Then Rey is surging over the table, teeth bared. The Sullustan is immediately plastered against the wall. 

“Tell us what you know,” she growls. “A good man died for us.”

“Rey—”

“Pfassking... what is this? Good cop, bad cop?” Neevan eyes Rey warily before assuming Poe is the safer bet. “You told me you just wanted to talk.”

“She’s right,” Poe says. Neevan sinks into the booth and immediately downs his mug’s contents. So much for a nice friendly chat. “You gave us some pretty bad intel. Things could have gone a lot worse. You think you don’t want to talk to us—you definitely don’t want to be talking to the First Order when they’re ruling the galaxy.”

“Who gave you the information?” Rey presses, not giving Neevan an inch of space.

“Someone said the First Order was decommissioning the Kril’Dor mines”—he blinks for the first time, black eyes glassy and nervous—“that they found a better planet for tibanna gas.”

Poe frowns. The First Order wouldn’t just up and abandon a resource operation, not with how relatively limited their reach still is.

“I told Snap, and then he checked it out,” Neevan says. “That’s all, I swear! If anything went bad, it was with him, I don’t know! I’m just the messenger.”

“Oh no,” Rey says suddenly.

Poe looks over, and then scans the cantina. “Oh no, what?”

A stormtrooper and an Abednedo walk into the cantina— _kriff,_ it’s like the beginning of one of Jess’s terrible jokes. Rey’s eyes follow Poe’s, and she looks back at him quickly, eyes gone wide.

“That’s the vendor I bought the paddy frogs from.”

“I’m not surprised.” Poe turns to Neevan. “Alright, just stay calm. If they spot us, all we’re doing is asking for a safe transport to get to Nar Shadaa, and you’re the guy that’s going to get us there. Have they seen us, Rey?”

Rey peeks across the cantina.

“They’re looking around,” she says quickly, hiding her face behind her hand. “We don’t have long.”

Poe unlocks his jaw and glances over to the trooper and vendor. Their backs are turned as they talk and scan the other side of the bar. Poe leans in close to Neevan. “Look, they spot us? Me and my friend are publicly executed. You? Your best case scenario is rotting in a cell for the rest of your life if you cooperate with them. Sound like a good deal to you?”

Neevan whimpers. He’s getting close. Poe can crack him. 

“Just give us a name and we’ll disappear,” Poe reassures him. “They won’t even look twice at you.”

“I was looking for an easy job,” Neevan finally says. “This human woman overheard me trying to make a deal for a shipment of droid parts. Comes over, scares my client away, tells me she needs a ship to Arkanis. I say fine, but double the price for scaring off the other guy. She chatted with me on the way, that’s when she told me about Kril’dor.”

“What did she look like?” Rey butts in. “What was her name?”

“She never told me. Said the double fee included—”

A bright red blaster bolt nearly grazes Rey’s ear. Neevan isn’t so lucky, and he catches it right over his right eye. He goes down, smoke wafting from where his head hits the table. Rey’s hand flies to her mouth, face draining of colour.

“Rey! We gotta go!” Poe hauls her out of the booth as the cantina descends into chaos. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a hooded figure slipping out the door, but the trooper has his blaster ready and screams for everyone to stand down. 

“You can’t let him signal for help!” Rey says. 

Poe watches in frustration as the assassin get away, but he knows she’s right. He reaches for his blaster, but it’s already in Rey’s hand. She shoots, and the stormtrooper goes down amidst the chaos. Poe looks at Rey and blinks. 

“Come on!” Rey says, shoving his blaster back into his hand.

Poe chases after Rey as she bursts out of the cantina. She’s bought them a bit of time—probably just enough to make it back tothe _Vixen_ before the stormtroopers converge.

 _Kriff. It was all planned so perfectly_ , and he’d walked right into it. 

“We have to get to the ship,” Poe says. He hears the troop’s muffled voices before he sees them as Rey takes him down a back alley. 

“We need to find out who shot him,” Rey counters. “They’ll have more information.”

Poe grabs her shoulder and whirls her around, pressing her against the grimy alley wall. Every muscle in Rey’s body is tensed as her chest rises and falls against his, her breath hot against his jaw. A group of stormtroopers rushes past in the direction of the cantina while he gathers his breath. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean—” he steps back. “We’re compromised, we can’t do anything else.” He wants to give in to the defiance burning in Rey’s eyes and hunt down the bastard that shot Neevan and unravel this whole wild bantha chase. But— “It’s too dangerous.”

“For us or for me?” Rey fires back.

Beebee-Ate beeps frantically, saying Poe can check its memory for footage of the cantina after they get back to the base. Rey doesn’t look convinced, but Poe will take it. A lead is better than nothing.

“They’re probably halfway across the spaceport by now,” Poe says as they walk out of the alleyway. “The best thing we can do now is listen to Beebee-Ate. I’m not going to let them get away with this, Rey.”

Rey doesn’t say anything more as they sneak back to the ship.

They round the corner, and there she is. Poe’s stomach sinks. A squad of stormtroopers already surrounds the _Little Vixen_ , preparing to board and search it. He grabs Rey’s arm and pulls her back around the side of the building, out of sight.

“Rey, wait. We can’t let the troopers get inside. If they do the whole ship blows and we won’t have a ride out of here. Do you have a weapon?”

“Of course.” Rey brandishes the hilt of a...lightsaber? It isn’t exactly what Poe was expecting, but it can get the job done.

“Okay. I have a plan. Sort of.” He starts walking towards the ship. “Do you trust me?”

Rey looks ready to protest, but it’s too late, one of the troopers spots them, and motions to another.

“You there! Is this your starhopper?”

“Yeah,” Poe says. “Is there a problem?”

“Let me handle this,” Rey says suddenly, following him. “Trust _me_.” She sounds like she has a plan, and Poe isn’t going to argue with someone who has a plan right now.

“A few, yes.” The officer flicks his fingers across his datapad. “You’re docked on a First Order landing pad illegally, but that’s the least of your worries right now. What do you know of Attera Bravo?”

_Rose and Paige’s mission. They liberated the whole planet before the First Order could ruin it. It was one of their last missions together._

“We just bought this ship not too long ago, Officer,” Poe lies with an easy smile. “It was pretty cheap, owner looked happy to see it go. The repairs that went into it, let me tell you—“

“Yes, yes,” The officer waves him off and motions to a pair of stormtroopers to search the ship. Poe’s hands clench. If they trigger the self-preservation detonators, they’re all dead. “Fortunate for the owner. Unfortunately for you, this ship is wanted for suspected Resistance activity. I’m going to have to take you in for questioning while my troops search your ship.”

Poe really hopes Rey still has that plan.

“You will not take us in for questioning,” Rey says calmly. It doesn’t come out as a question. “You’re going to let us go with a warning.”

 _Plan B_ , Poe scrambles for a thought. _Okay what’s Plan B,_ because they’re definitely getting arrested now _._

The officer snaps his attention towards Rey, but instead of barking orders for her to be arrested, he seems to be caught in her intense gaze.

“I will not take you in for questioning,” he repeats. Poe feels a jolt run through his body as if he were hit by a blaster set on stun. “I’m going to let you go with just a warning. Move along.”

The troopers glance at each other and Poe just can’t stop staring at Rey. _Pfassking stars._

“And you’ll tell your troops that there is nothing to search for. Call them off.”

Poe feels just as dazed as the officer looks as he agrees to call off his own troops. The troopers look between themselves and the ship, confused. Then he sees the emergency self-destruct lights flash from inside the ship.

“Rey? Run.”

“What?” Rey looks at Poe incredulously. “I just got us our ship back.”

There’s no time. Poe grabs Rey’s arm and pulls her with him, just before the _Vixen_ explodes.

Poe rolls off of Rey with a pained groan after what feels like ages. Little bursts of light dance around his eyes as he squeezes them, trying to refocus against the dark fuzz at the edges of his vision. Beebee-Ate bumps against him, frantically urging both of them to get up. 

For a split second, Poe is looking into the eyes of a girl who’s just realized she’s in way over her head.

“Rey!” Poe grabs her shoulder, shaking her as he pulls both of them up. An alarm starts wailing overhead. “Rey! We’ve gotta get out of here!”

Rey blinks and looks behind them. The _Vixen_ is a burning pile of scrap, the stormtroopers laying around it motionless, their armor cracked and charred. She brushes Poe’s hand from her shoulder and gets up. When she looks back at Poe, her eyes are hard, calculating. Looking for the best way to survive. 

Plan C.

It’s Rey who says, “Run!”

“There’s another spaceport past the street market,” Poe says. They both duck back down the dimly lit alleyway. Beebee-Ate leads, having hacked into the security feeds. “Someone’s not gonna miss their ship.”

There’s a battered Rebellion-era Y-wing in the western spaceport much to Poe’s surprise. It doesn’t look like it’s worth much; heavily modded, but not cared for properly. The troopers have already gathered to form a perimeter, and they’re patrolling around the much more important looking ships. 

“Rey, one o’clock. Garbage. We’ll have to find another way around.”

“Good, you distract them while Beebee-Ate and I hotwire it. Try _not_ to get us killed this time?” She turns to Beebee-Ate. “You slice the security and I’ll start it, okay?” 

Before Poe can protest Beebee-Ate beeps in agreement and they’re off, leaving Poe in their dust. He huffs, staring dumbly after Rey before shaking his head. He would never usually take orders from someone who enjoys Klatooine paddy frogs, but if he doesn’t act soon they’ll all get caught. She asked him to trust her, and strangely, he does.

He makes up his mind and runs right up to the crowd of stormtroopers.

“Hey! Hey! Officers, I saw them! They’re headed back to the market, you’re gonna lose them if you don’t hurry.”

“Watch yourself, citizen. We already have troops searching the market.” Both troopers raise their blasters and Poe raises his arms. The other troopers around them watch. “Everything is under control. Go back to your business.”

“Sir!” A voice behind Poe calls. “There’s a Resistance symbol on his jacket!”

The stormtrooper’s helmet snaps back to Poe. Poe gulps.

“Really? There is? I didn’t notice. It’s not mine, I was just borrowing it. The jacket, I mean. I’ve been told I look really good in it.”

“Are all Resistance spies this dumb?” one of the stormtroopers closing in asks, unamused.

Poe tightens his fingers around his curls. _C’mon Rey._

“He’s clearly trying to distract us. There was a girl and a droid. Tell us where they are and we won’t shoot them on sight.”

“You’re right. You won’t shoot them on sight.”

Electricity shocks down Poe’s spine, sharp and cold. He turns around slowly.

“ _You_.” 

The assassin from the cantina lets the hood fall from her face. Malarus grins back. The curve of her lips twists into the black veins webbing from her eye implant. Her uniform is soiled, untucked, her hair is free of the tight regulation bun, wild and untamed. She looks worse than when he left her to rot in that vault on Cato Neimoidia. 

“Commander Dameron, a pleasure to see you again.” 

“That makes one of us,” Poe says. _Kriff_ , he had underestimated her. Her strategies had never exactly been predictable, but this—she’s manic.

“I didn’t know the First Order gave second chances,” Poe says casually. “How did you even escape?”

“You of all people should know, Dameron. No one is concerned about their valuables breaking out of a vault. As for you: you’re my ticket back.” She turns to the troops. “Troopers, I am Commander Malarus of the First Order Security Bureau. Leave this one for me. Find his accomplice and the droid.” 

The troops don’t move. 

“I don’t think they take orders from has-beens like you,” Poe says.

Malarus shoots the commander without blinking.

“What the—?!” Poe staggers back until his heel bumps into the fallen stormtrooper’s armor. He stares at Malarus. _She really has gone off the deep end._

“Failure to comply will result in your termination. Now go find the other spies.”

In the near distance, he hears the roar of twin ion engines. The alarm starts blaring and only then a few troopers break off from the circle to investigate.

“Did anyone think to shut down this spaceport?” Malarus snaps. “That’s them!”

The Y-wing rises from the sea of ships and turns towards them. It fires. Troopers fly. Poe is knocked to the ground before he scrambles up and runs to Rey and Beebee-Ate. He jumps, catching the ladder by the last rung. He pulls himself up and into the cockpit while Malarus screams.

“Good job, Rey,” he says, breathless. He throws the ladder from the cockpit, missing Malarus by inches. She fires her blaster, but Poe is back in the cockpit, strapping in.

“Is that her? The assassin?”

“Yeah. We found her.”

Rey keeps firing as Poe fixes the flight path.

“I’ve been listening in on the comms, the shield generator and tractor beam are going up in one minute, fifty seconds.”

“Good,” Poe says, even though it’s not. The one thing the owner didn’t get around to modding was the engine, and it flies about as fast as a sleepy Hutt. “Plenty of time. Beebee-Ate, set the coordinates, we’re jumping to hyperspace as soon as we leave atmo. Let Malarus go. We’ll find her again. On our terms next time.” He’s going to make sure of that.

Once they make the jump, Poe breathes a sigh of relief and leans back against the headrest. Rey slumps back too, and Poe can feel the back of her head against his shoulder, her soft hair tickling his neck.

“You’re a Jedi,” Poe finally says. He watches the stars around them stretch and fly past along the hyperspace route. “That’s why Leia’s sending you to Luke.”

Rey shifts against him restlessly. “I’m not a Jedi,” she finally admits softly. “I’m from Jakku.”

Poe shakes his head with a small smile. “Luke Skywalker was from Tatooine.”

“Do you always have the right things to say at the right time?” Rey laughs.

Poe’s grin widens. “Most of the time.”


	5. Chapter 5

“We’ll see each other again, my friend. I believe that.” Rey leans forward and presses a kiss to Finn’s forehead, heart aching. She wishes they had more time—for her to wait until Finn woke up, to make sure that he’s okay. She gives the heart rate monitor another glance, knowing she can’t stall any longer. The _Falcon_ is finally ready, and everyone is anxious to find Luke, including her.

Rey gathers her things and looks back at Finn one last time as she turns to leave. She stops short when she sees Poe and Beebee-Ate in the entrance to the medbay. Poe shifts his weight from his shoulder up against the wall, scratching the back of his neck. He clears his throat and a small weight is lifted from her chest, seeing him.

“Sorry, I uh—didn’t want to interrupt anything.”

Rey gives him a small smile and walks over. “It’s okay, I was just leaving.”

“Yeah, I heard. Leia said the _Falcon_ was cleared this morning. Figured I’d come by and thank you for everything.”

“For saving your skin?” Rey teases. 

_Twice,_ Beebee-Ate adds, making her giggle. 

“That sounds like a lot of praise coming from the Best Pilot in the Resistance.”

Poe rises to the challenge with a cocky smirk. “Hey, even the best of the best need help sometimes.” 

“Like needing someone to plan and execute your entire escape?”

Poe exaggerates the roll of his eyes. “The escape plan that we needed after you stole that paddy frog? That’s why pilots like me need even better pilots like you,” he concedes before Rey can protest.

Rey blushes, taking the hand that Poe offers her.

“Again with the right thing to say, Dameron.”

Poe grins and Rey’s stomach flips. Is he… actually _flirting?_

“Come here,” he says, pulling her close. 

Rey hides her face in his dark jacket, hoping it covers how flustered she is in his arms. He’s warm and solid all around her, just like Finn. But he smells like starship fuel and the explosion they barely escaped from on Kafrene, and Finn’s never made her heart race quite like this before. 

Poe is grinning at her when Rey lets him go, whole body feeling as warm as the sand at midday on Jakku until Beebee-Ate warbles, and it feels like someone’s thrown her into a happabore watering hole.

She crouches down by the droid, giving its antenna a once-over. “Of course I’ll be back. You’ll look after them while I’m gone though, won’t you? Make sure Poe doesn’t get in too over his head.”

Beebee-Ate beeps in the affirmative, and she rises again to meet Poe’s eyes. 

“Make sure Finn is okay,” Rey says softly.

“I will.” Poe promises, something fierce sparking in his eyes. His hand is on her shoulder again, gripping tight and sure. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to him. If it’s safe, Beebee-Ate and Artoo can send holo-messages. I’ll let you know how he’s doing.”

“I’d like that.” Rey nods, and he lets her go. “And… I’d like to know if you end up finding Malarus again.” A tremor crawls down her spine at the memory of Malarus, dark and malicious, watching them with a cold glare as they escaped Kafrene’s spaceport. “I hope you do.”

“So do I,” Poe says. “C’mon, we should go. Tev says there’s another salt storm headed our way and Chewie doesn’t want to get caught in it.”

The blast doors are already open and surrounded by people when Poe and Rey walk into the hangar bay.

“Is this another celebration?” Rey asks as they weave through the crowd.

“You’re going to find _the_ Luke Skywalker,” Poe says. “A few people around here might think that’s a big deal.”

The crowd parts as they reach the entrance. Leia stands looking out the doors, dark silhouette contrasting with the harsh sunlight spilling in, her cloak flowing behind her frame as the wind begins to pick up. Poe has melted into the crowd, nodding at Rey to go on. She stops in front of Leia, nerves alight under her skin, blazing as hot as the sun framing Leia’s face as she turns to look at Rey.

“Don’t be nervous,” Leia says, as if she’s caught a glimpse of the dark uncertainty that has nestled in the back of Rey’s mind ever since she left Jakku. “Luke will be there, I know he will.”

She doesn’t say it, but the unspoken _for you_ hangs heavy in the air between her and Rey. As if she knows that this is what Rey needs as well. Rey finds herself in Leia’s arms again and a strange sort of calm rushes over her.

“Bring him home,” Leia says after the moment passes. “You’re the only one who can.” She smiles and lets go of Rey. “And Rey? May the Force be with you.”

There’s something final about those words and Rey feels a small smile coming to her lips. Before she can say anything else, Threepio is blocking her path.

“Oh! Miss Rey, I cannot believe I am still saying this after all this time, but I do hope that you will take care of Artoo—” 

He frets until Rey gives him her word, and she takes that as her cue to leave. Chewbacca is standing on the loading ramp, impatiently waiting. She turns to look back at the crowd one last time and sees Poe, standing at the forefront. She nods back to him before following Chewie.

“You finished removing the hyperdrive modifications, right?” Rey asks as she settles into the pilot’s chair beside him.

Chewie huffs in agreement, with an added, _No thanks to you_. Rey grins and engages the engines while Chewie primes them.

“You looked like you had everything under control. Poe didn’t, trust me.”

Chewie rolls his eyes.

The _Falcon_ lifts from the ground. She can hear Artoo working behind them, plugging in the coordinates to Luke Skywalker. She can feel Poe’s eyes, and the entire Resistance’s on the _Falcon_ as they clear the hangar and climb through Crait’s atmosphere, barely avoiding the incoming salt storm. 

Somehow, it feels like the whole galaxy is holding its breath.

“Punch it,” Rey says, a little breathless herself. She puts her hand next to Chewie’s on the control and they pull it down, engaging the hyperdrive together, and they’re catapulted into the stars.

  


* * *

  


They’ve been travelling for cycles when Artoo finally advises them to drop out of hyperspace. Rey yawns and stretches out in the pilot’s chair. In between working on minor repairs and modifications to pass the time and listening to Chewie’s stories, the hours and cycles had felt like they bled into one another like they had on Jakku. Rey had marked them over her bunk out of habit, much to Chewie’s displeasure. But she’s done waiting for her family, it’s her turn to move forward, to figure out where she fits in this galaxy. To find them herself.

The _Falcon_ drops out of hyperspace and the first thing Rey sees is shades of grey. She shivers as her eyes lock on the planet. For a moment, Ahch-To is all she can feel. She remembers the dreams on Jakku, of a planet with more water than she could have ever wanted when she was thirsty, of a planet with nights so cool she had to bundle up under all her layers when the midday heat refused to set with the sun. Then, she remembers Ahch-To erupting under her and she pulls herself back into the cockpit.

“Alright Chewie, slow down. Take us in.”

Chewbacca glances over at her, tilting his head, and asks if she’s okay.

“Yeah,” she says, forcing her voice to come out stronger this time. “It was just a long flight.”

There’s as much water as she remembered. The waves are calm today as they slice between the smaller islands.

Artoo starts beeping and rocking excitedly, but Rey turns back to the island they’re coming up on, the largest, knowing that it’s the one. Every inch of her skin feels electric with nervous anticipation. She breathes out, her heartbeat pounding in her chest, her neck, her ears.

“Chewie, is he nice?” The question bubbles up from somewhere deep inside. Rey feels small and naive again, like a kid back on Jakku asking to hear another story about Luke Skywalker from the pilots that came and went. Sometimes they didn’t know anything beyond what she had already heard, others told tales that hardly seemed believable. She had spent days in the bones of the Imperial star destroyer _Inflictor,_ wondering how one man could have the strength to bring it down into the sand.

She believed it though. Rey had believed everything.

Chewie gives Rey a noncommittal shrug and says that it’s been years since he’s seen him. Artoo beeps indignantly, and Rey smiles. _Of course he is._

But Chewie is right. A lot could have happened in the time that he disappeared. Kylo Ren had destroyed everything, and Rey doesn’t know how someone could come back from that. 

She doesn’t know if Luke Skywalker even wants to come back from that, if he’ll agree to come with her or help her. She doesn’t know how she’d face her family again if— _when_ —she finds them, knowing she’ll have to face why they left her. 

There isn’t much space to land. The island is all green cliffs and gray crags, but Rey flies the _Falcon_ as if she were on autopilot, following her gut until Chewie growls, saying that they’ve found a good spot.

They land in the same space Rey finds the _Falcon_ in her dreams. Rey pulls her hands from the controls, palms sweaty, and stares at them for a moment, unable to understand it. She had always relied on her instincts, thought they were _good_ , but ever since Kylo Ren had ripped into her mind, whatever she considered instincts had become a dark void, full of uncertainties. And now she has a name for it. The Force. She doesn’t know where her skills or instincts end or where the dark void begins. She isn’t sure what’s hers anymore. 

Poe had said it so easily— _you’re a Jedi_ —but she still has so many questions.

Rey’s first thought as she steps outside of the _Falcon_ is that in her dreams the island was never this cold. The sun shines a weak, pale light through thick clouds. The air is wet and cool against her bare skin while she feels like she’s burning on the inside. Chewbacca roars. Rey looks back at the spiral of stone stairs leading up the cliffs. 

“Are you sure?” she asks. Then: “It’s alright, you can stay with the ship if you want.”

 _Good luck_ , Chewie rumbles.

Artoo whistles, upset that it won’t be able to make the climb at all.

Rey forces a smile and turns back to the stairs. It’s now or never.

Halfway up the cliffside, Rey is starting to think that never might look more promising. She breathes out hard and leans heavily against her quarterstaff, wiggling her feet around in her boots to avoid rashes around her calves. No amount of trudging through sand could have prepared her for this.

 _What would Luke Skywalker do,_ she asks herself as she rests on her quarterstaff. Probably levitate using the Force or something, but if he had to _climb…_

The lightsaber in her bag feels immeasurably heavier, but she closes her eyes and breathes in. She hoists the bag farther up her sore shoulder and continues on. She lets her mind quiet, tuning out the burning in her thighs, the ache in her shoulder, the wind howling around her.

_Luke Skywalker would keep going._

Rey’s feet hit the grassy incline at the top half an hour later. She’s winded, feet aching, heels blistered, shoulder rubbed raw. But there’s a hooded figure in a long grey robe and Rey’s heart trips as she stops to watch him, standing at the edge. 

She waits there for a moment, patiently. Nothing happens.

It feels like… _Oh. He’s waiting for her_ , Rey realizes. And she’s been stalling.

 _There’s no turning back now._ Rey climbs up the cline, minding the rocks. When she glances back up, Luke Skywalker has turned towards her, watching her now. Rey swallows the lump in her throat, but her pulse still pounds away. She wants to say something, ask so many questions, but when she opens her mouth, nothing comes. She can’t stop staring into his eyes, intense blue like the ocean miles below them as he studies her with what looks like… _sadness? Guilt?_ Instead, she reaches into her satchel and pulls out the lightsaber, feeling as though she’s showing something precious, something of herself.

Luke Skywalker regards the lightsaber, but quickly dismisses it as he takes it and looks back at Rey. She stares at his hand, the damaged mechno-one, the same one she had seen in her vision. It’s he who asks the first question.

“How did you find this?”

Rey blinks, taken aback. She didn’t know what to expect, but not this. Maybe a _who are you?_ Or a _how did you get this_ , even.

“I—I found it on Takodana. Maz Kanata had it locked away.” Quickly, she adds, “I didn’t steal it! I… felt it. Something—something led me to it.” She knows she’s rambling now, and shakes her head to stop herself. “Is how I have it really that important?”

“ _Rey_.” 

Rey freezes. She feels as if she’s been left out in the snow on Starkiller.

“How… do you know my name?” It’s a dumb question, Rey knows. The Force probably told him, however it works.

But instead of laughing at her or scoffing, Luke’s eyes shutter, flickering with pain, and he seems to give up trying to study her. That’s not what she wants at all.

“Never mind,” he says. He gives one last glance to a marked patch of grass, and brushes past her. She looks at the ground, seeing the small slab marker jutting out from the dirt.

“Wait! Master Skywalker, I’m with the Resistance; Leia sent me!”

“I know,” Luke says. He doesn’t turn back.

Rey stares after him, dumbfounded. Is he really just going to leave her there?

“Can I at least have that lightsaber back?” Rey asks. Luke turns towards her, expression blank. Rey hopes to the Force she hasn’t annoyed him already. “It’s pretty useful. If you’re not going to need it.”

Luke grips the saber in his mechno-hand and jerks his head, motioning for Rey to come with him. She immediately has flashbacks to Beebee-Ate asking her to help it get back to town, to where it belonged. She hurries after him, almost tripping over the stones to keep up as he descends the cliffs. 

“So, Leia sent you?” Luke asks.

They’re in his hut, situated in a tiny village of other huts that look out towards the sea, occupied by squat, gray-skinned aliens that Rey has never seen before. He holds up a steaming pot. When Rey nods, he pours some hot liquid into a couple of cups and Rey takes one with a grateful smile. When she looks down, it’s a faint green colour. Her smile twists into an uninterested grimace; she has been spoilt in the Resistance. Their rations were nothing like the ones at Niima. They had protein packs, re-hydrated meats and boiled vegetables and starches when they were available. And the _bread._ She couldn’t afford to be picky before, and she has to remember that now. When she takes a sip from the cup, it’s not as bad as it smells. Her stomach growls for more.

When she looks up, she realizes that Luke hasn’t taken his eyes off her, scrutinizing her every move. Rey puts the empty cup down.

“We need your help. The First Order just destroyed the seat of the Republic, it won’t be long before they find the resources and the support to rule the galaxy.”

“And Ben Solo?”

At first, Rey has no idea who Luke is talking about. Then, she remembers a flash of red searing through Han Solo; Han calling out for _Ben_.

She doesn’t understand. Why would he even care about Kylo Ren after what she’s told him?

“He killed him. He killed Han.” 

Luke’s bright blue eyes dull with pain. He bows his head and doesn’t speak for a long time. 

“I’m sorry,” Rey says quietly.

When Luke finally looks up, he looks impossibly older. His eyes are red rimmed, shining with unshed tears. Rey almost excuses herself from the hut to give him some privacy before he asks: “Did he hurt you?”

“—no. Not me. He hurt my friend. He chased us. We barely made it. Chewie saved us _._ Kylo Ren tried to kill us.”

Luke’s face draws tight. Rey shakes her head. “You couldn’t have known,” she says.

“No,” Luke says. “I did know. I’m sorry. I had seen it before. I knew he would take this path no matter what, and I still tried to save him. This is all my fault.”

Luke looks back at Rey with the same piercing gaze that makes Rey feel as if he just _knows something_.

“I couldn’t have known a lot of things,” he says as if he’s plucked the thought right from her head. 

Rey feels a shiver down her spine. If it had seemed as though Leia could sense Rey’s emotions, there was no telling what Luke Skywalker could do.

Rey isn’t entirely sure what that means, but Luke is changing the subject before she can say anything more.

“How is your friend? He isn’t with you,” he observes. 

The tears that had filled his eyes have disappeared. He refills her cup and takes a sip from his own with a faint smile. She thinks of asking Chewbacca: _Is he nice?_ This Luke Skywalker isn’t anything like the stories, yet she finds to her surprise that the kind interest in his eyes is exactly what she was expecting.

““My friend—Finn—they say he’ll be alright, but Kylo Ren almost killed him. He’s helped me countless times and I haven’t even know him for that long.” She pauses, then adds, “He… he came back for me.” 

_No one else ever had_. The unspoken words lie between them and Luke’s eyes turn sad again. 

“I had friends like that, too.”

  


* * *

  


For lack of something better and less awkward to do, Rey climbs from Luke’s hut back down to the _Falcon._

“He’s… I think he just needs to grieve right now,” Rey says when Chewie asks her about what happened. He nods, understanding, and leaves the _Falcon_. Rey thinks it’ll be good for them both if Chewie sees him again. Rey didn’t know Han for as long as they did, she doesn’t have a place here.

Rey has lost herself in working on the power couplings, seeing if she can’t fix them to generate more power without overloading, when Artoo comes by. It beeps, wanting to know if she needs help and Rey gratefully accepts. It explains how the _Falcon’s_ strange dialect is the result of inputting a pilot droid’s navigational systems into the _Falcon_ ’s mainframe. Rey remembers Poe’s promise, and wonders if it’d be easy for Artoo to send a decipherable holo-message through the _Falcon_.

They work together in silence for a bit before Rey feels courageous enough to ask. Artoo had come across as sharp and quick, to the point of being intimidating. Rey had never seen a droid go so long without a memory wipe on Jakku, and its personality showed it. Poe told her Artoo’s memory stretched back far before she was born, back to the days of the old Republic. 

“Has there been any word from the Resistance?”

Artoo asks. 

Rey drops the hydrospanner and hisses. She brings her nicked finger to her mouth and licks the cut with pinched eyebrows.

“On Finn, my friend. Has he woken up yet?”

There’s an uncomfortable moment when Artoo’s photoreceptor swivels right at her and studies her. Finally, Artoo beeps, stating that it hasn’t received any transmissions.

Rey exhales, having lost all of her nerve.

Artoo beeps again, using what Rey is pretty sure is binary for swearing. It asks, a bit begrudgingly, if she wishes to send a hologram to the Resistance _and Poe Dameron_ about Finn.

“Is that a good idea?” Rey chews at the inside of her cheek.

Artoo tells Rey that it assured Beebee-Ate that it would take care of her. If this is what _taking care of_ means, then yes.

“Well… alright then.”

Rey pushes a stray strand of hair from her face as the blue holographic light flickers from Artoo’s photoreceptor, recording her.

After the fourth try, the recording stops and the blue light flickers away. Rey sighs, frustrated. 

“Don’t send that one. I called him Commander Poemeron.” _Why is this so hard to get right?_

Artoo sniggers. Rey groans in defeat. 

“Just… just don’t send any of them, okay? It was a bad idea anyway.”

Artoo plugs into the power conduit, and Rey realizes, a little too late, that Artoo is uploading a message.

“No!” Rey gasps, mortified. She reaches out but stops herself short, fist clenching painfully around nothing. She can’t do anything about it now, unless she wants half a holo sent—or worse, a fried conduit. 

Artoo beeps to itself with satisfaction when the upload is complete and returns to work on the power coupling. Rey picks up her hydrospanner again, but the usual calm of fixing components has deserted her and the only thing she can focus on is trying not to feel the embarrassment burning her cheeks.

  


* * *

  


When Rey finally musters up the courage to face Luke again, she finds him at the top of the cliff, by the slab of stone. She wonders if it’s a grave marker. 

Sometimes the other scavengers would put markers to remember one who died, but the sand would take them before long. The only real marker was the _Inflictor_ , and even that would be taken by time. 

Rey blinks, bringing herself back to Ahch-To. _Who did he lose before Han_?

“Master Skywalker?”

He turns, eyes red rimmed, face weary. He steps down and—he looks through her again, as if he’s seeing everything. Rey’s mind is alight under his careful gaze.

“Come with me,” he says.

Rey follows, and they walk down the cliff through the morning fog. 

When the the _Falcon_ first approached the planet, Rey had felt something. She feels it again, the sensation that the planet is _alive_ in a way she’s never experienced before. Is it the Force? 

Luke leads her across a grassy cline. There’s a tree when she looks up, bare, dead, yet not dead at all. Rey can feel it; a spectre of the past. This had to be what she had been sensing all along. Her breath comes out as a burst of warmth in the cool air and quickly disappears into the fog.

“Chewie told me everything,” Luke finally says, stopping. 

Distantly, Rey hears a voice, voices whispering. She turns around, expecting to see a group of Lanai caretakers working behind them. There aren’t. 

“He says you’re from nowhere.”

“I’m from Jakku,” Rey says quickly.

Luke snorts.

“Jakku. Sand and junk. That’s pretty much nowhere.”

“You were from Tatooine,” Rey huffs. For once, she wishes someone would lay off—

“Same thing,” Luke grins. “Only we had the Hutt cartel, bounty hunters, and smugglers crawling everywhere.” A memory flashes behind his eyes and sets Rey’s heart aching for Han again, too.

Wordlessly, they step inside the old tree. 

“So I know how you got here. What I want to know is why.”

“Leia sent me.” The story rolls off her tongue easily. “The Resistance needs you. The First Order destroyed the Hosnian System and the New Republic and you’re the only one standing in the way of the First Order and the entire galaxy.”

Rey breathes in deep, feels Luke take the same long breath with her.

“And what do you need?” he asks, quieter.

Rey looks around the hollow, eyes falling to a gnarled shelf filled with thick books covered in years of dust.

“I—to learn the ways of the Force. To help them. And to find my family. Wherever they are.”

For the first time since she arrived on Ahch-To, Rey sees a spark in Luke’s eyes, something of a smirk hidden behind his beard. It’s the closest thing to hope he’s shared with her.

“You think you’re going to learn how the Force works and use it to find your family,” Luke repeats. He looks at her, amused. Rey doesn’t see the humor in it.

“But—” she starts.

“But what? Finding your family isn’t as important as saving the galaxy?” Luke gives a short laugh. “I don’t think that’s what I would have said at your age.”

Rey tries to study him, but comes up with nothing. Out of all the possibilities she had imagined, Luke Skywalker making small talk with her like they’re negotiating a deal on a transport was not one of them.

Finally, Luke says: “I’m not going to save the galaxy.”

“ _What?_ ” Rey stares at him in disbelief. “Master Skywalker, did you not hear a word I just—”

Luke raises an eyebrow and Rey immediately closes her mouth.

“I’m not going to save the galaxy. I can’t do it by myself, Rey. But I can…” Luke sighs heavily. “I can train you. And then we can take on the First Order with the Resistance together.”

Rey blinks.

“I would say the first lesson is patience,” Luke says, “but I think you’ve been waiting long enough.”

“When do I start?” Rey asks, excitement bubbling in her stomach.

“Well, what can you feel right now?” 

And Rey... Rey feels—claustrophobic, yet too small. The hollow of the tree isn’t roomy, but somehow she feels lost in it. The air tastes stagnant, yet full of energy, an energy she’s never felt before. She senses it’s been there for thousands of years, but it feels new to her.

He nods towards the stack of books nestled in the crook of the tree.

“Those are the ancient Jedi texts. They’re old, useless, and their teachings are out of date. I want you to read all of them. That’s your first lesson.”

“Why would I want to read texts that are useless to me?” Rey asks.

“Because you can make them useful. That’s what scavengers do. These Jedi failed. I failed. You won’t.”

Luke leaves Rey to mull over the books. She considers starting with the skinniest one first, but she knows that she’ll eventually have to read the thickest. There’s a newer one though, one that doesn’t look beaten and battered by time. She picks it up and flips through. 

_Kira is gone._

A rush of heat flows through her as she realizes that the book is Luke’s. It’s his journal. She quickly puts it back, chastising herself because she would never want anyone to read her journal from Jakku. 

But the curiosity gnaws at her. And Luke _did_ say that she needed to read all of them.

Rey takes a deep breath and plucks it from the shelf again. She takes another book for good measure, to hide the journal, and makes a mental note to bring her sack with her next time to carry the rest back to the _Falcon_.

It’s a good start, Rey admits to herself. Even if she does feel that she’s been left with more questions than she has answers.


	6. Chapter 6

Poe stands with Leia as the blast doors shudder and start to close. He follows the Falcon’s path along Crait’s horizon, to the stars, until he can barely make out the shape and the coming flurry of salt stings his eyes until they water.

Then the massive blast doors close, plunging the hangar bay into darkness for a moment before Poe’s eyes adjust.

“You can’t play hero all the time, Commander Dameron.”

“Who, me? Hero?”

When Poe looks back at Leia, she’s smiling up at him, a sharp glint in her eye. And okay, _maybe_ Poe had thought that he and Black Squadron were going to be the ones to find Luke Skywalker and bring him back to save the galaxy after all the effort, all the blood that had been shed, all the good lives they had lost. _Maybe_ he had been a bit apprehensive when Leia told him that she wasn’t sending Black Squadron at all, that she was sending someone who had never fought with the Resistance before. But that was before Rey.

“I trust you,” Poe says. 

Leia’s smile turns wry.

“I know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an important message to send.”

Leia leaves and Poe realizes that most of the other crew have left as well. He swallows, tapping his fingers against his leg for a moment before balling them into a fist. Now, they’re left to sit in an old Rebel base between a rock and the First Order. And wait.

Except Poe can’t—won’t sit around and wait for the First Order to come knocking. They’re all in danger with Malarus still out there because of _him_ , and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to finish this.

“You ready Beebee-Ate?”

Beebee-Ate bleeps out an affirmative and they both head to get _Black One_ ready for take-off.

  


* * *

  


Beebee-Ate warbles woefully as _Black One_ pulls out of hyperspace just outside Kaddak’s atmosphere. Poe heaves a heavy sigh, face to face with the planet again. He had never planned on coming back. Not after Terex and the Rancs had hunted them down. But Poe feels like he’s running out of options. 

He certainly doesn’t feel like he’s playing the hero right now as The Sliver comes into view again. He had really hoped he’d never see this place again.

“It’ll be alright, buddy. You’ll see,” Poe says, trying to encourage Beebee-Ate to follow him off Level 45’s landing pad. “They won’t even recognize us.” He hopes.

Beebee-Ate beeps again after they’ve landed and the cloaking device has been safely activated for _Black One_.

“He’ll be happy to see us this time,” Poe says. 

Beebee-Ate swivels its dome around, photoreceptor narrowed into Poe’s face and Poe knows the little droid well enough to know that it’s horrified.

“Hey, I saved his life. Technically. You don’t think he’d be a little grateful?” Poe counters. Beebee-Ate swivels its dome away in disappointment, but follows Poe dutifully. 

Beebee-Ate is right about one thing though, the locals aren’t friendly and even without a jacket branded with a symbol of rebellion, he’s getting looked at funny. The key, Poe tells himself, is to look confident, look like you know where you’re going, and look like you belong there. People will usually look the other way.

Usually. 

Something bright red bumps his shoulder hard as it passes, and Poe mumbles an apology, turning to see a Guavian helmet turned in his direction. Poe holds his breath until the Guavian finally turns around and keeps walking.

It doesn’t take much longer until he sees the hologram. Mugshots of criminals and smugglers are displayed, names and prices of each spelled out in Aurebesh. To the left of the door is an IG droid, old enough to be around an ‘88, Poe suspects. Though the only model he remembers was turned to scrap on Ord Mantell by another bounty hunter. He gives it a once-over as three of the four red photoreceptors focus on him as well. A shiver runs up Poe’s spine as he enters Level 45’s cantina.

Beebee-Ate beeps carefully.

“No, I don’t like the look of him either,” Poe agrees. “Maybe they won’t serve him,” he adds to ease Beebee-Ate’s circuits.

Poe doesn’t give it any more thought because his eyes land on just the person he wants to see.

Terex still has that slice of silver hair running along the center of his skull, the dark moustache that hides a new haggardness on his face. The scars from the neural control device are still shining pink on his forehead in the low light. For a moment, Poe freezes, realizing that he’s come face to face with what he’s about to do. Betray the Resistance’s— _Leia’s—_ trust just to have a shot at saving it?

 _Guess it’s more likely than I thought_. Poe sighs. He walks forward and slides into the booth in front of Terex.

Terex, for a split second, looks like he’s seen a Force ghost. He lowers his drink. The next, he’s pointing his blaster right between Poe’s eyes.

“You can’t give me any good reason not to shoot you,” is Terex’s only greeting. “I’ll let you spend your last few minutes trying to, though.”

“I’m thinking you owe me one,” Poe says. 

A server droid rolls up to the booth.

“Anything for you, sir?”

Poe waves it away with a “no thanks”, but Terex holds up a hand to stall it. 

“Give him one last Corellian whiskey, on me,” he says. He turns back to Poe when they’re alone again. “I owe you nothing.”

“Maybe that time I saved your life must’ve slipped your mind. Or, you know, payback for that time you stabbed me with a vibroknife.” Poe holds up his right hand, revealing his own thin line of pinkened scar tissue along the middle.

“I saved myself,” Terex snarls. “After you fed me to the kath hounds.”

The server droid comes back with the whiskey, and Poe throws it back in a show of good faith before settling in to his seat.

“I helped. Kind of. Look, you want a reason not to shoot me right here, I’ll give you one: Malarus.” A spark flickers in Terex’s eyes and Poe knows he’s bought himself a few more minutes. “I want info. And possibly expertise.”

Terex is silent, considering Poe as he continues:

“I know you want me dead, and I can appreciate that. But I’m assuming Malarus is more of a sore spot than I am.”

Terex slams his drink down and sets his blaster to kill. 

And here Poe had thought it was set to kill the whole time.

“You underestimate yourself,” Terex says sweetly.

“I’m flattered.” Poe smirks. “But the thing is, I’m a pretty sore spot for her now. And it’s put the Resistance in a tight spot.”

“I don’t care about the _kriffing_ Resistance,” Terex snorts. “The First Order paid me to pay attention to you insects.”

“I know,” Poe agrees. “I also know that you don’t like the First Order anymore. What the Empire’s become.”

Terex’s eyes glint dangerously as he leans over the table, closer.

“You wouldn’t understand, Dameron. You blindly hate the First Order and the Empire as if they’re the same machine. The First Order will never be like the Empire. We served the Emperor. We kept the galaxy safe—for a while. The First Order—all the officers care about is themselves. They’re hungry for blood. They’ll devour anyone who thinks they can get in their way.”

“And I’m here to stop that from happening,” Poe says.

Terex leans back slowly, grip on his blaster loosening a fraction.

“I’m offering you a chance at evening the odds, Terex,” Poe adds.

Terex clicks his tongue.

“I didn’t think the Resistance dealt in revenge. I guess I was wrong after all.”

Poe’s fingers twitch against the table. A small smile twists Terex’s lips. Poe knows when he has to concede.

“You said it yourself,” he admits, allowing Terex the satisfaction. “The First Order is a different type of beast. We have to adapt to fight it.”

“Get up,” Terex says suddenly, calmly. Like he’s decided something. The blaster is pointed directly at Poe’s face again. And, well, Poe was expecting a better deal than this. “Start walking.”

Poe does as he’s told, keeping his hands away from his body for good measure. It’s when he’s out of the booth that he spots the same IG droid from outside the cantina. Beebee-Ate realizes this as well, and trills in alarm. 

Cover blown, the IG droid pulls out the blaster rifle slung across its back, and Poe sprints to the door, narrowly avoiding a shot to the ribs and legs.

“I thought IG-88 was turned into a tin can on Ord Mantell,” Poe says over his shoulder. Terex is close behind him, blaster still firmly aimed at his back.

“Apparently it uncanned itself. Blast it, you piece of scrap,” Terex sneers at Beebee-Ate as they rush out of the cantina. “I had it under control.”

Looking for the quickest route out, Poe spies his face on the same WANTED holoprojector outside the cantina. 

“I’m beginning to think this just got a whole lot worse,” Poe says. He takes his blaster out in the few moments they have to spare, and shoots until it’s sparking and the image is unrecognizable static. Another blaster bolt shoots past his head, and Poe takes off after Terex again, winding their way through the crowded streets to the landing pads.

“When we make it out of here,” Terex says, realizing they’ve been forced onto the same side, “if we make it out of here, I am going to enjoy watching you suffer.”

“Yeah, let’s save that until after Malarus, okay?”

Poe glances behind himself cautiously, and doesn’t see the assassin droid anywhere. He does, however, notice a bright red figure walking towards them with a lot more purpose than he’d like—and a cocked blaster.

“Hey, look,” Poe says easily. He reaches for his blaster. “About before; I said I was sorry. And to be fair, you bumped into me.”

A blaster bolt flies too close to his shoulder and sends shocks along Poe’s arm. Poe wrinkles his nose at the smell of burnt fibres.

“Hey, maybe I got the wrong guy, I can’t tell, you all dress the same—”

The Guavian falls, a smoking char mark dented right in the torso of the red armour.

Terex gives him a furious look.

“It’s a wonder I never managed to finish you.”

“There’s still plenty of time,” Poe says as they take off again, more Guavian red suits behind them. 

_If we make it out of this._

It’s hard to hide when The Sliver is occupied mostly by smugglers, bounty hunters, and slavers all trying to take a crack at the newest posted bounty. And IG-88 has just uploaded the bounty onto every screen frame there is.

Beebee-Ate whistles an alarm and Poe ducks just in time to dodge another bolt from the side. He fires his blaster blindly, looking back only to see that IG-88 barely took damage to the shoulder.

“ _Kriff_.” He cringes.

“I hope you’re ready to be one of the most wanted men in the Outer Rim, Dameron,” Terex snarls, hurling a vibroknife straight into a Kanjiklub gangster’s chest. As he crashes to the ground, Poe spots the weapon, and an idea pops into his head.

“When wasn’t I?” Poe fires back, sprinting to the fallen body.

“I _will_ leave you stranded here, Dameron!” Terex shouts after him. 

Poe grabs the shock-stick and fires his blaster up into the window of an open building. A Trandoshan falls, hitting the top of a tarp canopy of one of the street vendor stalls right behind Terex. The canopy tears, and the whole stall crashes down. 

Terex frowns as Poe matches his long strides, running again.

“Now you owe me,” Poe says. “Alright, new plan: back to the ships.”

It’s not easy navigating back through the streets of The Sliver; Poe isn’t sure how much his body count has been upped by either. All he knows is that he’s happy to see _Black One_ in one piece on the landing pad.

“Beebee-Ate, get her ready!” Poe shouts. Beebee-Ate tilts its head and rolls as fast as it can, zipping towards the X-wing.

The wind is suddenly knocked clean from his lungs. He’s yanked back, two arms like mechanical bars cinching around his waist.

Poe struggles, but the blaster and shock-stick are zapped out of his hand by a hidden shock-arm. IG-88 beeps at him to not resist. _It is futile._

At least he knows he’s wanted alive, for the moment.

And _blast,_ he can’t see Terex anywhere.

Suddenly, Poe’s entire body seizes in one huge muscle contraction. He drops to the ground. Electricity jolts through his system, forcing his muscles to spasm, contorting his body in on itself. For a split second, it’s the most intense pain he’s ever felt in his life. Then, his mind goes dark.

The next moment finds him on the ground, unable to move. The pain sears, and his stomach churns violently. He blinks, refocusing on Terex. The shock stick Poe had picked up is in his hand, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

And okay, _maybe_ if Poe had been in the same position, he would have done the same thing. 

With all the rest of his willpower, Poe scrabbles up and sways on unsteady legs. He takes one look back, sees IG-88’s kneecap sparking and smoking, shattered. The red photoreceptors have dimmed; the droid is offline for the moment. 

“I hate you,” Poe gasps, fighting the urge to puke.

“The feeling is mutual,” Terex says, smug.

  


* * *

  


“Malarus has been watching Kaddak a lot more recently,” Terex divulges when they both pull out of Kaddak’s atmosphere. “A lot of high profile bounty hunters, smugglers, _me._ The First Order is tapping into this filth more than the Empire ever did.”

Poe sees the stellar opportunity to make another crack at Terex, just for the stunt he pulled, but he can’t afford Terex jumping to hyperspace after all Poe’s gone through for this. Instead, he says:

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

A sigh cracks through the comms from Terex’s end.

“They didn’t rise from greatness. They rose from the galaxy’s underbelly, the Empire’s rotting corpse. I’ve seen things that the Empire would never have tolerated. They stick to the shadows. It’s how they stay alive. It’s disgusting.”

Poe makes a noise in vague agreement. “See? We can agree on some things. Maybe this little partnership can work out.”

“When this is over, Dameron,” Terex growls, “I fully intend on claiming the reward for your body myself.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Poe promises. “We’ll talk later.”

“Maybe.” The commlink is cut, and Terex’s ship is gone, winked out into hyperspace. Poe sighs and closes his eyes for a moment, trying to pretend that this alliance didn’t have to happen. The painful little spasms in his muscles make that impossible.

  


* * *

  


It’s been days, and Leia still hasn’t pulled him aside to talk about the sudden “recon” mission. Unfortunately, Poe still hasn’t heard from Terex either.

“Hey buddy, did you check out the lock systems yet on the s-foils?” Poe asks. “I think I may have gotten some salt in there the other day, I heard something funny during our sweep this morning.”

He smiles when Beebee-Ate warbles negatively about the salt. It’s been complaining ever since they got to Crait.

“Just make sure I don’t lose a wing or jam them if something happens,” Poe consoles the droid. He scrapes at the paint job on the nose of _Black One_ , wondering when he managed to get a char mark. Could have been Kril’Dor or Kaddak. He’ll have to redo it.

“Got a minute?”

Poe turns from his X-wing. Snap is standing there, arms crossed over his broad chest looking… not very happy.

_Ah kriff._

“Hey, Snap. Anything come up? General Organa have another mission for us?”

“Actually I’m just doing some recon. One of my informants was killed. After you went off on a secret rendezvous with the girl, Rey. Which was coincidentally around the time my records were hacked.”

Poe nods slowly, trying to buy some time. There’s… a lot of info and he doesn’t even know where to begin explaining himself. How did Snap even—

Snap doesn’t even give Poe time to open his mouth.

“Did you kill him? Did you really think he was selling out Resistance intel?”

“What? No! I just went to check him out, see if I could get anything from him. The First Order got to him.”

Snap goes wide eyed and quiet.

“You thought I was the leak.”

“Snap… I’m sorry, I couldn’t take any chances, I needed to cover all of my bases. I couldn’t have another Oddy Muva.”

“Kriffing… Really? Oddy was blackmailed. He had to protect his family.”

“He could have done it differently.”

“And you think I’m just selling secrets like it’s bantha fodder? We’ve been in this same fight for how many years together, Poe? And now you’re just sniffing everyone out like a kath hound and flying into the night with some girl who’s apparently never been offworld until four cycles ago? Who do you even trust? Wait—don’t answer that. I know you don’t trust anyone.”

Poe clenches his jaw. He doesn’t need to listen to this. But this is also Snap, one of the first pilots he flew with in the Resistance.

“I don’t need to trust anyone,” Poe says. “I just need to trust that they believe in the same cause I do.”

Snap’s eyes spark. He shoves the datapad right into Poe’s chest. 

“Really, Poe? Because I’m also wondering about your most recent flight log. Kaddak? What do you want with Terex? You know, the guy who hunted us down for months. You think he’s on the same side now?”

Poe shoves the datapad right back to Snap.

“He is on the same side as far as Malarus is concerned.”

“Malarus—?”

“Escaped and she’s coming for us. She’s getting closer and closer and I don’t know how, but Terex might. Now, this is my fault. And I’m gonna make it right before it becomes everyone else’s problem.”

“Kriff, I _hate_ it when you get like this, Poe. We’re Black Squadron. We’re a team. We’ve got each other’s backs. Can’t you just… let us have yours sometimes?”

Poe closes his eyes. He opens his mouth, but he doesn’t have the words. When he looks back up, Snap is walking away. Poe breathes in sharply through his nose. 

He wishes he were back on D’Qar again where the only time they ever had to close the hangar bay doors was at night, and he could roam, clear his head, breathe in the fresh air.

Poe feels the panic rising in his chest again and digs his blunt fingernails into the palms of his hands to keep himself grounded. He hates this hangar. He hates how the walls remind him of the inside of the interrogation chamber, how they feel like they’re about to collapse in on him like his own mind while he’s trapped in that chair—

Beebee-Ate bumps into his leg, photoreceptor peering up at him. Poe knows it’s worried. He swallows down the lump from his throat and forces a smile.

Beebee-Ate beeps solemnly.

“It’s alright, buddy. We’ll figure it out.” 

Poe knows that Snap will come around. 

Admiral Statura’s voice comes over the intercoms, calling Black Squadron to the command center. Poe scratches both of his hands through his hair and pulls himself together for the briefing. 

Five minutes later, Poe is blinking hard, bringing the bright dot on the hologram back in focus. He grips the comms table, willing himself to focus as well.

“We’ve intercepted a distress call from Gatalenta,” Snap says. “The First Order began bombing the capital just days after we sent out our own distress beacon.”

“I don’t know how they were able to react so quickly; it’s not a very good sign.” Leia frowns.

“No, it’s not,” Poe agrees.

“The bombing began just after this message was sent.”

The holo of Gatalenta blinks out, replaced by the image of a woman of around Leia’s age.

“ _Leia_ ,” the woman smiles, “ _it’s been so long. I’m afraid the Council of Mothers would never agree to taking sides, especially at a time like this, but I think you know what my stance on this is. I’ll scramble as many sympathizers as a cruiser can hold, and I’ll see you there.”_

“This is Amilyn Holdo,” Leia explains after the holo freezes. “If the First Order manages to capture or kill her, we’re out of one of the best chances we have.”

“So how are we going to do this?” Jess asks.

“I want a small extraction operation,” Leia orders. “Black Squadron will go in undercover and rescue her. We’ll have two other squadrons on standby if things start to go bad.”

“Which they always do,” Snap mumbles.

“Only with Poe.” Jess cracks a grin, oblivious to the tension between the two.

Poe rolls his eyes, but takes the bait anyway.

“Hey, we all pull through,” he says easily. “Every time.”

“You’ve got ten minutes to get ready,” Leia says. “I’ll brief Blue and Cobalt Squadrons on their role in the mission. Good luck. And may the Force be with you.”

Poe nods.

“Alright team, let’s get suited up. I’ll meet you guys in the hangar bay.” 

“Where are you going?” Bastian asks. 

“Just need to see a friend,” Poe waves him away with an easy grin.

  


* * *

  


Poe grips the control yoke hard as Black Squadron comes up on Gatalenta just to keep his hands from shaking.

“Alright Black Squadron, form up.”

“Copy that. You okay, Poe?” 

Poe wishes he could wipe the sweat beading at his hairline under the sticky helmet, wishes it didn’t feel so hot inside _Black One_ ’s cockpit. He had told himself that he needed the stim shot, just to keep himself on his toes for a little while longer until he was in the thick of battle and the adrenaline kicked in. Now, he isn’t so sure it was a good idea. 

“All clear, Jess. Okay pilots. We break atmo on the South side of the city, hit the First Order from behind where it hurts. Blue and Cobalt Squadrons will wait for my signal. Do not engage with the heavy cruiser to the south west unless absolutely necessary.”

“Roger,” Tallie and Finch reply.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Poe leads the flight down through the clouds only to find that the top layer of puffy white turns to durasteel grey, hanging low over the city.

“Blast, I can’t see a thing with this weather,” Bastian says.

“Guys, I don’t think that’s cloud cover,” Jess says. The X-wings finally break through the thick fog, only to see that it’s not much better near the city. “I think it’s dust... and ash.”

Poe’s eyes widen when he sees the city—or what’s left of it. The pristine white buildings Poe had once associated with the planet were in ruins, just rubble on the ground in the wake of the First Order’s attack. The dust rises like a final breath over the entire southern sector of the city. 

“ _Kriff.”_

Suddenly, a new voice breaks the comms.

“Resistance, this is Amilyn Holdo, we have your position. You guys are right behind a wall of TIE bombers.”

“Yeah, we kind of figured,” Poe replies. “We’re gonna clean them up and give you a clear path to break atmo. Then when we’re out of jamming or tracking distance, we’ll transmit a safe location for you to jump to.”

“Hurry, there isn’t much time before they arrive at the base.”

“Copy that,” Poe says. “Alright, new plan. We hit the First Order with everything we got. Snap, Jess, Bastian, you go and help Holdo get that cruiser off the ground. I’ll go with Blue and Cobalt Squadron and make sure they can’t destroy anymore of the city.”

“Poe—”

“I said screw the original plan. We aren’t going to rescue a shipful of important people and leave the rest of the city to die,” Poe grits out. “ Blue Squadron, let’s do this.”

“Already headed your way,” Tallie says.

Before anyone else can object, Poe spots the TIE bombers and locks his s-foils in attack position. “Ready, buddy?”

Beebee-Ate beeps positively. That’s all Poe needs to fire on the first bomber. 

“Okay, you’re in range,” Holdo says as Black Squadron races past the blockade. 

The squadron of bombers breaks off from their bombing run to engage.

“This is crazy, Poe!” Snap yells.

“I’ve got this, Snap. Go!” Poe sees Snap shoot down a bomber on his port side viewport just before TIE fighters come into view. Beebee-Ate trills as Poe banks a hard right, drawing their attention away from Black Squadron.

And _maybe_ … this was a bad idea, Poe thinks, looking at the scanner to find himself boxed in by TIES incoming on all sides. He pulls the yoke hard, pulling _Black One_ into a steep climb to try and lose some of the bombers. It works, and a few drop off. The fighters continue to follow.

“We might not make this, buddy… force the thrusters to shut down.”

Beebee-Ate beeps in alarm. “Just do it!”

 _Black One_ seems to freeze. For one heart pounding moment, Poe sits there in the cockpit as she hovers, all engines offline. Then, she starts falling, and Poe’s stomach immediately hits his diaphragm. He grits his teeth, watching as the TIE fighters continue to climb, then scramble to break off and pursue. 

“Okay, punch it!” 

The control panel lights up again and Poe grips the yoke, thrusting _Black One_ into a dive, heading straight for the ruined bones of the city’s buildings for cover. 

“See buddy? I told you we’d make it.” Poe grins. 

Beebee-Ate beeps. A sarcastic reply comes across the translation screen. 

“I see one on your tail, Poe,” Tallie says.

“Right on time,” Poe says with a sigh of relief.

The pulse on Poe’s scanner fades and Tallie cheers.

“You’re all clear, Commander. I’ll stick down here, I’m more maneuverable than you.”

On any given day, Poe would love to debate X-wings and A-wings, but Poe doesn’t want to risk the wrong turn here, so he takes _Black One_ over the city’s skyline again.

“All squadrons, this is Cobalt Squadron. We’ve been spotted. I repeat: the heavy cruiser has spotted us.”

“Hang tight Finch,” Snap says. “The Gatalentan cruiser is just about to launch.”

“Don’t engage unless they aren’t giving you a choice.” Poe takes down three more bombers and a fighter before he finally sees the cruiser hovering above the skyline. 

“You guys can’t move any faster?” He asks.

“While I appreciate the sensitive timing of this mission,” Holdo says, “this cruiser isn’t an X-wing, Commander.”

Poe grimaces and picks off the last of the bombers. The rest of Black Squadron joins the fight just in time to finish off the remaining TIE fighters.

“All clear.” Poe can hear the relief in Amilyn Holdo’s voice as the cruiser begins its ascent. 

“Good. All squads, form up. We’re going to disable that heavy cruiser.”

“Stand down, Commander. We need to get out of here as quick as we can—”

“With all due respect, Holdo,” Poe cuts her off, “This is my mission. I can’t just leave knowing the First Order is still here when it’ll keep destroying your city. That, and we don’t need an unwelcome guest back at base.”

There’s silence on the other end of the comm, but Holdo doesn’t have any choice in the matter anyway. Poe won’t leave until he knows the heavy cruiser is crippled, and he’s going to be the only one giving out coordinates.

“Alright squadrons, let’s go.”

Thankfully, the cruiser must have deployed most of the squadrons it could carry to bomb the city. The two squadrons remaining are launched and picked off quickly, and it’s easy enough to maneuver around the turbolasers and take them out.

“You’re all clear Commander,” Tallie confirms the last turbolaser destroyed.

The heavy cruiser completely defenseless, Poe swoops around to the stern before they can reroute all shields. He fires all of the proton torpedos _Black One_ has. It’s enough to cripple the starboard engine, which flickers and dims as it slowly loses power.

“Alright,” Poe says. “Sending the hyperspace coordinates now. Let’s go home.”

Once he’s pulled into the warped tunnel of stars, he turns off the commlink and switches the controls to autopilot. He hasn’t felt this tired since after the runs on Takodana and Starkiller. But he has hours to kill; maybe he can get catch a few moments to himself.

  


* * *

  


Poe’s eyes snap open as the scream dies in his throat. He wrenches his hands from the imaginary shackles of the interrogation chair only to hit the transparisteel canopy of his viewport, leaving behind prints of perspiration. The console in front of him flashes red, warning him about the canopy seal’s integrity and suddenly, he’s back in his X-wing again. Poe rips the helmet from his head, and even the stale recycled oxygen is cool against his heated skin. He looks up, focusing on the stars above him to remind himself that he’s no longer there, not for the moment. 

Beebee-Ate’s worries scrawl across the astromech translator when he finally looks back down.

“Yeah, buddy. I’m okay. I was just resting my eyes.” He swallows the pulse from his throat, and tells himself to breathe.

Suddenly, Beebee-Ate beeps more optimistically.

“From Rey?” Poe’s pulse jumps under his skin. He hasn’t heard word from Rey in a few cycles. The last message she had sent consisted of her trying to decipher old Jedi texts with Artoo and her starting to complain about the cold. It was always cold, and when it rained, it got colder. And it always seemed to be raining. Poe couldn’t help but grin as he had watched Rey sniff again for the umpteenth time in the holo. He didn’t think of her as one to complain, but it was cute. 

“Yeah, let’s play it!”

_“I’ve received your last message. It’s been about a standard week since I’ve arrived and the only training I’ve had is with the sacred texts. Artoo is fed up with trying to decipher them. I really think we could have used Threepio, even though Artoo won’t admit it. I’ve been—practicing using the Force. Master Skywalker says it’s not all about lifting rocks but every time I do it’s—”_

Poe breaks into a grin just as Rey does. She shows him a handful of stones, spreading her hands apart as they start to float in midair. _It’s amazing._ Last time Poe had seen something like this… Poe blinks away the memories of the boy with the crooked smile and focuses on Rey again. 

_“Has there been any news about Finn?”_ She asks. The hope dims from her eyes a little. _“I suppose you would have said something if there had been. There really isn’t much else for me to report. Is it okay if you can send Finn a message for me when he wakes up?”_

Poe swallows as Rey starts addressing Finn. He shouldn’t be listening to this.

“Buddy, you should wait to show this to Finn—”

_“I’ll come back for you, I promise.”_

Poe’s chest seizes so suddenly it hurts. He tells himself he should really should ease off the stim shots, but he knows it’s not the stims. He’s taken back to Yavin IV, running after his mother as she walks back to her A-wing.

_“Mama, wait! Come back!”_

_“Oh baby, I know.”_ Shara’s arms had wrapped around him one last time. Poe had buried his face in her dark curls, trying not to cry. _“Don’t make this so hard on yourself. I’ll come back for you, I promise.”_

Poe clears the lump from his throat. “Yeah, you should save that for Finn, okay?”

Beebee-Ate beeps at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired.” Poe checks their flight coordinates. They’re coming back up on Crait. “Let’s take her in, buddy.”

There’s a flurry of commotion when they land. Medics swarm the Gatalentan cruiser. When the passengers start to offload, there’s an exodus of people into the hangar. Some are alright, others are helped to the medbay, some are carried. Amidst the chaos is Leia, a fixed point that everyone naturally moves around. Poe can see her waiting, a small smile on her lips before she’s embraced by a tall, slender woman with a shock of pale purple hair. _Holdo._

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Leia sighs.

“I always knew you’d come no matter what.” Holdo grins. “You’ve got quite the set of pilots here.”

Leia beckons Poe over, making no indication as to whether she knows if Poe’s been listening in or not.

“This is Commander Dameron.” Poe can’t help the swell he feels in his chest at the look of pride in Leia’s eyes. “He’s one of our best.”

Poe turns to Holdo. He can tell that she’s sizing him up already, now that they’ve met properly. It doesn’t sit quite right with him, but he takes her hand anyway and offers a smile. “Poe Dameron.”

“We’ve met,” Holdo agrees.

Suddenly, a younger woman comes up to them, settling in at Holdo’s side. She meets Poe’s eyes with a level gaze. “Leia, this is Pella Talcy. She’s been working with me for the Resistance for a while now. I owe it all to her for getting our distress signal out.”

Talcy smiles, and offers a hesitant hand. Poe only receives the briefest of glimpses before Talcy’s attention is drawn away again.

“I’m sorry, but if you’ll excuse me,” she apologizes.

Poe furrows his brows, watching her go until she’s back aboard the Gatalentan cruiser.

Before he can feel any which way about it, Holdo addresses him again.

“I want to thank you for what you did back there, Commander.” She smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I was only looking out for the Resistance back on Gatalenta. I was so focused on getting your help that I forgot that there isn’t any point if there’s nothing to return to or save.”

Poe nods. 

“I’m just glad we could do all we could. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check up on someone. I’ll have my personal report to you by the debrief,” Poe says to Leia. He turns and heads to the medbay.


	7. Chapter 7

Rey wakes shivering under the thin blanket wrapped around her. The darkness from her dream refuses to leave and she tosses and turns against the memories of Kylo Ren in the forest until the sun mercifully starts to rise. And slowly, as the light starts spilling into the hut, the darkness starts to creep away just as it had come during the night.

Blindly, Rey reaches down beside the bed until she finds the journal. She had stayed up until well after dark, using the light of her lightsaber to read until she almost dropped it from fatigue and burned a hole in the cot.

With a twinge of guilt Rey turns to the page she last left off. Luke had wanted her to read the sacred texts, but it was the journal—his journal—that Rey had felt the call from. She told herself that it was just her genuine curiosity to know more about the legend.

This isn’t the book of adventures she was expecting though. The journal is only about the Jedi temple, the students, _Ben._ Rey can’t reconcile the monster she faced with the bright-eyed, promising boy Luke praises. The only darkness she can catch glimpses of are in his competitiveness, his hunger to best the others, his hunger for knowledge, Luke’s worries about Ben’s obsession with trying to better himself.

But Ben isn’t who she cares about, even though Luke writes praises of his progress regularly. It’s _Kira,_ the little girl who was the only other person Luke mentioned more than Ben; he wrote of her with pride and love. His daughter. 

Kira’s absence from Ahch-To leaves a hollow feeling in Rey now. Luke seemed as if he had to live with the ghost of her, and by extension, Rey had to as well. She wondered where Kira was, hoped the end of Luke’s journal would give her the answers she sought. Was it Kira’s grave at the crest of Ahch-To?

_Kira seems to have begun her training earlier—a lot earlier—than expected. My lightsaber went missing between sparring sessions and lunch. I didn’t have to ask any of the other students; I went to find Ben. I found him, my father’s lightsaber ready, instructing Kira. My own lightsaber came to life in her hands. I watched for a moment as she smiled. It was the big toothy grin she only reserved for her mother when she came to visit the temple after a long mission. (Mara was the only one who wouldn’t laugh at her; in my defence her two baby teeth came out at the same time)._

_I realized it wasn’t the first time they had practiced together as I watched them. Kira seems to have learned a few of the basics of Shii-Cho. I did enjoy watching Ben teach her. It’s the first time I’ve seen him reach out to anyone, student or not, and I hope this is the beginning of a strong bond like Leia and I have forged._

_It was innocent until Kira was on the ground, my lightsaber a few feet away. Ben had his lightsaber pointed at her until she screamed. I hadn’t felt fear like that in a very long time, and I reacted on instinct. I used the Force to push Ben away from her. I’ve only seen that move once before, while fighting my father. I don’t know where Ben could have learned Djem So, but I need to. He won’t speak to me at the moment, though._

_Mara thinks that Kira is going to be the only one to match Ben’s power because of her bloodline. I don’t like it, but it’s possible. Ben is always complaining even though I pair him with the second strongest of the padawans, Zhel. He wants to spar with me. I’m thinking that I’ll have to, if only to figure out how he’s been able to practice Form V._

Rey puts the journal back under the bed and rubs the sleep from her eyes. When she opens them again, she lets out a shaky breath. She feels it then, a shift in the air. Every inch of her skin prickles as she looks around the small hut. Everything is the same, except—she feels trapped, like the walls of her own mind are closing in on her. She looks back over and—Kylo Ren. Somehow, he’s here on Ahch-To, but somehow, she’s… not. The side of the hut has been replaced with the same obsidian durasteel walls she had been trapped inside on Starkiller. He sits there, staring back at Rey with wide eyes as their worlds narrow down to an exact point: each other. The next breath echoes in Rey’s mind.

“ _Rey._ ”

Rey grabs for her blaster, and shoots. The blaster clicks and nothing happens.

“Safety,” she remembers, fumbling with the switch as Kylo stands, towering over her. He stalks closer until Rey raises her blaster. “Stay back!”

She blinks, and the nightmare is gone, replaced with Alcida-Auka. The Lanai caretaker stands at the open entrance, frozen with fear. Rey startles and quickly hides the blaster under the bed and grabs her bag.

“I’m so sorry, that wasn’t—I thought you were someone else.”

Alcida-Auka glares up at Rey and Rey is more intimidated than she ought to be by a Lanai that only comes up to her thighs. She looks behind Alcida-Auka and sees a bucket full of soapy water. The first time, half of that bucket was dumped on her and she learned that the island’s wake-up call was at dawn.

She lets the little Lanai inside. As if she senses that something wrong has happened, she goes straight to the bed and lifts the sheets. Rey tries not to look at the burn her lightsaber left. 

Alcida titters and chirps at her. Rey knows that she’s frustrated, it’s all Alcida ever seems to be with her. 

“I’m sorry,” she says again sheepishly. “It won’t happen again—hey! Don’t touch that.”

Rey grabs the half-finished doll from Alcida and gives it a once-over. Rey has kept it hidden from her since she first started working on it. She has no doubt it’d end up tossed off a cliff when it proved a useless waste of materials. The beard and hair are made of recycled Porg fur, something the Lanai use to stuff beds and pillows. The cloak was torn from Rey’s old wrap, something the caretakers were desperate to get their little webbed paws on and use as cleaning rags. 

Rey puts the doll in her bag and stares Alcida down until she’s chirping and tittering at her again, shooing her from the hut.

“She’s always like that,” Luke tells her. “I just stay out of her way and she doesn’t bother me anymore. Probably figured I wasn’t going anywhere after trying to get rid of me for ten years.”

They’ve met up for another lesson. Nothing’s changed much since the last message she sent Poe. It’s all theory, technical. Rey is itching to get onto the practical stuff. 

She should tell Luke about what she saw this morning, but everytime she thinks she can, the thought is pushed to the back of her head. How would he even understand? He’d probably raise an eyebrow and tell her that she’d know what happened if she started reading the sacred texts.

And Poe still hasn’t sent another message back.

“Now, how far did you get with your readings last night.”

Rey looks around the island sheepishly. Luke sighs. 

“I’m sorry, I was just tired from yesterday’s training.” Rey cringes. It’s not her best lie, but the guilt of reading Luke Skywalker’s journal like some hungry Galactic Core journalist when she should be studying eats away at her. 

“Alright, we’ll try something different this morning,” Luke says. Chewie roars behind them and she turns, seeing him and Artoo standing at the base of the cliff. “To wake you up.”

A little compartment in Artoo’s dome slides open. Then, it spits out something quick and silver that arcs directly into Luke’s hand. It’s a lightsaber hilt. Different from the one Rey carries, but unmistakable. The blade flares to life, a vibrant green against the muted greys of Luke’s outfit and the stones and sea around them. Rey scrambles to pull her own lightsaber from her bag when he starts advancing, activating it just in time to block a downward thrust.

A grin breaks across Rey’s face despite the adrenaline spiking through her veins.

“First rule,” Luke says over the crackle of energy between their blades, “always have your lightsaber accessible at all times. It will protect you better than a blaster ever will.”

He makes a point of looking down to the blaster holstered at her hip before taking all his weight out of his forward stance and readjusting. Rey breathes easier without the lightsaber inches from her face as she watches Luke twist his lightsaber in his hand, waiting for his next attack.

Instead of attacking, Luke motions for her to start. Rey nods once and twirls the lightsaber around her fingers to get used to the weight of it in her grip again.

“What kind of opponent is going to give you the time to get yourself together?” Luke asks.

“You.” Rey grins. Luke rolls his eyes, but his beard shifts with the tiniest smirk underneath.

Rey breathes in deep and exhales, gripping the hilt of her blade tighter. Then she rushes forward, spearing her lightsaber directly into Luke. He blocks the jab easily, green blade swiping her blue one away like it’s nothing.

Rey has a hard time keeping up. Despite his age, despite the years without his own lightsaber, Luke is quick and he only grows quicker as he falls back into the motions again. His fighting style is nothing like Kylo Ren’s. Where Kylo Ren had been brute force and heavy handed blows, Luke is almost all defence, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Which is often enough as Rey tries to learn this new dance.

All the while, he keeps talking, correcting her. _Tilt your body to the side, don’t expose yourself for an attack, hold your lightsaber this way for a better defence against this attack, that’s only for a quarterstaff, not a single blade_.

Finally, Luke calls for her to strike again and Rey runs up to him, throwing her lightsaber behind her back only to pull it over in a wicked downward thrust. Luke blocks it, but barely. His lightsaber is knocked to the side, and Rey points her blade at him, grinning with pride. But there’s something in his eye when he looks at her: fear. The heat in her veins runs cold. Rey quickly backs off, powering her lightsaber down.

Luke finally calls for a break and wipes the sweat from his brow. Rey takes a huge gulp of water from her canteen and tries to focus on breathing properly again. 

“Where did you learn that?” Luke asks. 

Rey blinks. If she was honest with herself, she would say she didn’t know. Just instinct, she supposed. The instinct to go for any opening. And if there was no opening, make one. Instead, she says: “When I fought Kylo Ren on Starkiller; I must have learnt it from him. Everything happened so fast, and I needed to save my friend. I barely fought him off. What was that?”

A chill runs up Rey’s spine when Luke replies: “Djem So.”

Their break doesn’t last much longer.

“Come on, we have more work to do.”

Luke takes her to a little enclave by the tree. There’s a shallow pool there, clear water revealing an intricate tile design crafted into the bottom. The shape of the design is human, but crude. It’s split, half cloaked in black, half cloaked in white, while the background opposes those colours. Rey can only guess at what the symbols on either side of the figure are. She reaches out and touches the edge, trying to make sense of what the image may mean. 

“So now you know how to lift rocks,” Luke says, “you need to learn to not do something stupid with those rocks.”

Feeling insulted, Rey’s eyes narrow, but Luke just raises an eyebrow at her. 

“If you read the chapter, you’d know what this lesson was about.” He gestures to the pool. “The light and the dark; the balance.”

He snorts.

“Or at least I used to think so. There’s no such thing as balance. Not in any one individual. Just the balance created through their conflicts with one another. Light fights dark, dark fights light, balance is kept in the middle. Not even I could change that.”

Rey watches Luke’s expression grow bitter as he gazes at his reflection in the pool.

“What do you feel?” Luke asks after the silence.

Rey hadn’t expected that question.

“Cold?”

Luke shakes his head.

“No, what do you feel _here_ , Rey? Near this pool. Do you understand what it’s trying to say?”

“Is it supposed to say something? Does it talk?”

Rey hears a sigh as she squints at the picture. She looks back up at Luke, looking for guidance.

“Reach out like I taught you.”

“Okay.”

Rey lets out a deep breath, emptying her mind until she’s completely calm, until she can feel her heartbeat throughout her body. Then something else underneath, a current of energy thrumming through her veins like a river. The Force. 

“Good,” She hears Luke say.

She reaches out, feels the same Force pulsing in her all around her, like a quiet echo narrating the life around her.

“Everything,” she whispers. “I feel everything.” 

She feels every stone in the temple, every bit of life trying to grow its way through the cracks, every inch of grass on Ahch-To; the porgs, safe and warm in their nests.

“Life.”

The force of the waves beating against the cliff, the final pain of a billfish as it’s caught in a larger set of jaws, the remains of other creatures decomposing in the ground, creating the opportunity for more life.

“Death. The Force.”

She finds herself standing at the edge of a well, blackened with dead seaweed as the waves crash over the inlet’s ledge. It’s calling to her, tugging at her heart and she wants to follow, desperately—

“Rey!”

Rey falls over herself, heart pounding. She blinks back up at Luke. “What was that? What was that place?”

“The cave? It’s strong with the dark side. It keeps the balance of this island. Do you see what I’m trying to teach you, Rey? The balance isn’t about joining the light and the dark, it’s not this grey area. It’s what happens when they meet.”

Rey nods, but her mind is still far away, teetering over the edge of that well as it beckons to her. Luke seems to sense this.

“I think we’re done for the day.”

“Master Skywalker, wait!” Rey calls back after him. “I didn’t—you weren’t there. I couldn’t feel you.”

Luke’s brow sets in a deep frown. He gives a long sigh.

“No.”

  


* * *

  


“Are you sure there’s nothing?” Rey asks. She had made the long trek back to the _Falcon_ , not that it seemed that long anymore, to get Artoo’s help with the texts. Now, she’s wishing that she had taken Threepio along with them. Rey’s understanding of written Aurebesh is rudimentary at best. She was taught the basics to understand the worth of parts in portions, and used that to glean what she could from faulty flight logs and inscriptions on helmets. This ancient Aurebesh is completely out of her depth. Rey isn’t sure when Artoo’s specific model dates to, but it’s barely getting by.

Artoo beeps negatively.

“Oh, not about—” A flush rises to Rey’s cheeks. “I do _not_ ask that much. I meant the texts.”

Still, the fact that Poe hasn’t sent another message doesn’t help Rey’s dampened spirits. She _knows_ that they had agreed to keep in touch to keep her updated on Finn, but Rey would be lying if she didn’t miss hearing about mundane days on Crait or seeing Poe’s smile.

Now insulted that Rey thinks it might have missed something, Artoo twists its dome and projects all the times Rey has asked about Poe.

“Okay, okay! I get it,” Rey looks away, completely mortified. She buries her nose in the book she’s pretending to read, breathing in the scent of mould and bookworms.

When the moment has passed, she tries again.

“I just don’t know how it’s possible. He completely removed himself from the Force. Where would he have learned how to do that?”

Artoo keeps scanning. Rey slumps back on the cot, squeezing her tired eyes shut. The image of the well fills her mind again, beckoning her inside. 

Artoo beeps, jarring Rey from her thoughts. 

“You found something?” Rey picks the book up. The spine tears with her enthusiasm, but Rey doesn’t care, just scans over the passage, brows pulling closer the more Artoo translates.

It’s an unnatural process, the deepest offense in the Jedi code, worse than turning to the dark side. You’ve stripped yourself of something the Force has given you, the greatest gift. 

“It can only be done under extreme duress, emotional pain or torture,” Rey murmurs to herself. Her heart aches, imagining what Luke had to have gone through. She can’t help but think of Kira.

Rey hears footsteps coming up the ramp, and closes the book. Chewbacca growls when he finds the two of them by the bunk, huddled around the texts. 

“Master Skywalker is here?”

Rey finds him standing in the entrance to the _Falcon_ ’s cockpit, one hand resting on the co-pilot’s seat. 

“Master Skywalker?”

Luke turns around abruptly, seeming startled out of his thoughts. He smiles at Rey, and then looks back around.

“It’s been years since I’ve flown with her. It’s nice to see she still looks as terrible on the inside too.”

“We’re working on it!” Rey says, affronted. Chewie growls in agreement. 

“Hey, I said it was nice,” Luke raises his hands up in his defence. 

Chewie sniffs and grunts at Rey.

“A party?” Rey turns to Luke.

“I was going to get to it, until you said something,” he tells Chewie. “The Lanai have a celebration. It’s only once a year, when the Visitors come back.”

“The Visitors? What visitors?”

Artoo rolls in, bumping up against Luke’s leg. It almost falls over it’s teetering with so much excitement and Luke can barely get a word out in between the sequences of beeps.

“You can come too, Artoo.” Luke smiles, and Rey smiles with him.

Even as the sun dips low into the ocean leaving the Island in twilight, the Lanai village is still burning bright with dozens of little fires littered around. There’s music, or what Rey thinks passes for music.

“It’s called the Festival of Return,” Luke explains as they walk towards the village. “The males spend the whole year at sea hunting. They only come up on the island once a year, hence the party. It’s not like anything on Coruscant, or in the Rebellion, but it’s fun. I figured you might need some of that after all of our training.”

“Not even Jakku,” Rey mutters. But she doesn’t want to be impolite. It’s part of the Lanai’s way of life. And Luke—Luke was nice enough to bring her along.

She catches Alcida-Auka’s glare and winces. She hopes she hasn’t said anything. At least then Rey could pass it off as a fact that the head caretaker just doesn’t tolerate her.

Luke holds out his hand. Rey looks at it, confused, then looks around. 

They’re _dancing_ , Rey realizes as she watches the Lanai hop and wave their arms around the fires. Rey looks back at Luke’s hand, embarrassed.

“I don’t—I’ve never danced before. I don’t know how to dance,” she stutters.

“It’s not that bad,” Luke says. “No worse than your first jump to lightspeed.”

“Scary?” Rey fills in, remembering how her stomach had crawled back up into her throat as Han had pushed the _Falcon_ into hyperspace, how she had wished Finn was at her side so she could take his hand in hers and feel that now-familiar comfort.

“Exhilarating,” Luke adds with a knowing spark in his eyes.

Rey takes his hand, grinning despite her reluctance.

“Did you learn how to fly in the Rebellion?”

Luke shakes his head and leads her closer to a fire. Rey looks down at his feet, watching where he steps and tries to copy his movements.

“Tatooine. I’d met Han just a few minutes before and we were already in trouble; had stormtroopers on our tail.”

Rey accidentally steps on Luke’s foot and winces, but Luke doesn’t seem to mind. He just grins and helps her find the correct footing.

“The last thing he told me was to strap in, and as soon as I had, I was being pulled away from everything I knew.”

And Rey—Rey knows. The sharp “I don’t ask that question until after I’ve done it” is burned into her memory as the last thing she heard before she was pulled farther and farther away from Jakku.

Rey is dancing earnestly with Luke now, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping through her veins just like Luke had said would happen. _Just like flying._ She’s matching his steps to the beat of the drums. She watches the smile break across his face and finds hers mirroring his. She relishes this moment, wondering if this is what it’s like to find something close to a family after having longed for so long. He’s happy. She’s happy; forgetting about the galaxy for just one moment and finding each other.

For the first time in a long time, Rey feels like she’s the closest to finding her own family.

The drums slow, then stop altogether before starting up with a different beat. Rey is pushed away from Luke as a gaggle of Lanai squabble for a dance with him as well. Luke shrugs with a mischievous grin and Rey lets him go, wishing all the Lanai luck.

She finds Chewie at the edge of the festival, watching along with Artoo.

“Do either of you two dance?”

Chewie growls and glares at her, but Rey doesn’t let his attitude bring her down. She steps farther down the cliff and sits to watch the moon. She lets it all sink in, the music behind her, the waves in front of her. Somehow, light years away from Jakku, she’s beginning to feel at home. It gives her pause, to wonder if she had ever really felt like Jakku was home, or just a stepping stone. A cage where she was forced to wait.

When Rey pulls herself out of her thoughts, the waves seem farther away, the music muted. Her breath rings in her ears, echoing in her mind. Just like that morning.

She turns and sees a hallway identical to the one she had run down when she was escaping Starkiller, not the steps back up to the festival. Kylo Ren stands there before her, looking confused, but amused. Expectant.

 _“Where are you?”_ He wonders out loud, looking around Rey. _“I can’t see anything, just you.”_

“Good,” Rey spits. “Let’s keep it that way.”

His eyes settle on her, and Rey wishes fiercely that she had taken her blaster, her lightsaber even, as he walks closer.

_“Why is the Force connecting us, you and me?”_

When Rey doesn’t say anything, his expression turns from curious to cold.

_“I will find you, and when I do—”_

“Rey?”

Kylo whips around. _“Luke.”_

Just as suddenly as Kylo had appeared, he vanishes, leaving Rey’s path back to the village open again.

“Rey? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rey nods, trying to shake Kylo Ren from her mind again. “I just thought I saw something.”

Luke looks at her like he doesn’t quite believe her, but he doesn’t push it. He offers her his hand and leads them both back to the festivities.

  


* * *

  


“I think I’m going to turn in,” Rey tells Artoo when they’re back on the _Falcon_. “You can power down if you want.”

Artoo gives her a low sympathetic whistle.

But however hard Rey tries, she can’t fall asleep. She tosses and turns against her cot, waking up in a sweat after what seems like seconds, tangled in the thin blanket. Kylo Ren hovers at the edge of her vision, blurring against the shadows in the small hut. She shakes the memory away, tells herself that he isn’t actually in her head, he’s far across the galaxy, and she’s safe here.

Still, she finds herself getting out of bed, just to check. 

There’s another storm coming. The wind has picked up, and the sound of the waves crashing relentlessly into the cliffs drowns out everything else.

The festivities are still going on at the Lanai village. Rey can see the commotion by the little firelights from where she is as she looks over the cliffs. She grabs her quarterstaff and her bag and makes her way down the cliff with one last look at Luke’s hut. 

She has no idea how she’s getting there, but Luke has been telling her to trust in the Force; so that’s exactly what Rey does. She lets it guide her through the night until her feet are slipping against the wet stone and the sound of waves crashing against the rocks is deafening. Rey plants herself on all fours and crawls to the edge of the well.

“I can do this,” she tells herself. Her skin crawls as she touches seaweed for the first time. It’s gross—slimy and wet—and squelches in her fingers as she carefully feels around for the well’s edge.

Over the din of the waves, Rey can hear the whispers from within, goading her, coaxing her to come closer. Cautiously, Rey peers over the edge, fingers digging into the seaweed.

Suddenly, she feels her center of gravity shift and she tumbles straight down into the cavern with a scream. The next moment, she lands half in the water, half out, as she smacks her side into a ledge. She scrambles for support, scratching and scraping her arms at the sharp edges as she claws her way out of the water, legs kicking out uselessly behind her. She slips more than once, barely hanging on to the ledge by her fingernails as she inhales mouthfuls of water. Finally, she pulls herself up and collapses onto the floor of the cavern, gasping and sputtering for air. 

The whispers seem to laugh at her now, giggling quietly at the back of her mind as they goad her to the wall. But—it’s not really a wall, is it? Something inside Rey tells her that it’s more than that. It’s the only lightsource in the cavern, seeming to emit its own dim glow. The cavern… it feels darker than her dreams, a promise of what it could feel like if she just let it in, succumbed to it. It feels like nothingness, like infinity, an infinite number of possibilities—she only needs to ask.

She can see her reflection as she walks closer. Blurry at first, just the shape, and then Rey is looking at herself, drenched, shivering. She reaches out, giving in to the whispers. The tips of her fingers touch the wall.

“Let me see them,” Rey says. “My parents. Please.”

Her breath catches in her throat when another shadow forms in the mirror. It hovers closer and closer, but Rey’s brow furrows. She should see its face by now. It comes to a stop right next to her, still only a black mass. She blinks, hope quickly draining until she feels empty. Cold and stripped bare, her wants and desires, feelings, insecurities are laid out before her, and she receives nothing in return.

She touches the mirror again. Her second plea is drowned out by the loud crash of thunder outside. Rey jumps, whirling around just as a deluge of water from the ocean comes crashing in to the cavern. She only has time to take a breath before she’s swept up, thrown against the cavern wall. Pain bursts at the back of her skull as she hits the wall. It’s the last thing she feels before her eyes roll back and she’s pulled under.

  


* * *

  


Rey comes to with a wicked ache at the back of her head. But at least that means she’s still alive. And _warm._ She sees the small fire at the floor of the hut when she opens her eyes, and when she shifts, she feels the weight of more than one blanket. Then, she sees Luke.

She doesn’t even know what to say. She tries to sit up, but even that hurts. Sharp pains shoot along her side where she had landed in the cavern.

“You’re hurt,” Luke observes. “Let me see.”

Rey nods, shoving the covers from her body.

Luke winces empathetically when he sees the bruise forming over Rey’s ribs.

“I can’t do anything about that, but—” He takes her hand and extends her arm, revealing the bloody scrapes that catch his eye.

Rey hadn’t noticed them before, but Luke takes a cloth and dips it into the pot suspended over the fire. When he pulls it out, it’s steaming. Rey instantly twitches away.

“Boiled salt water. Just to clean them,” Luke explains. It hurts anyway. Rey hisses when the hot cloth comes in contact with her skin. Luke wipes at her forearms as gently as he can, but her skin still turns a bright red and stings. There’s only silence between them as they both watch the blood come away from Rey’s arm, staining the cloth.

“I’m sorry,” she says when Luke moves to the other arm.

Luke sighs. The cloth over Rey’s arm stills.

“I should’ve known something like this would happen. That cave is strong with the dark side, and it showed you exactly what you wanted.”

Tears spring to her eyes. She bites down on her lip to keep herself from making a sound. She watches as Luke looks down again and continues cleaning her arm, a vacant look in his eyes. Disappointed.

With Unkar Plutt things had been different. She had only been a slave he couldn’t own. His best scavenger, his best money maker. She could go against his will whenever she wanted and didn’t blink an eye, even if it came to punishment. Rey can feel that she means more than money to Luke, that it’s not just her imagination. And she doesn’t want to hurt him, not after all that he’s gone through. 

“It didn’t. Show me what I wanted.”

“You didn’t even try to resist,” Luke says, pain in his eyes. “Don’t you understand, Rey? You don’t need some big destiny to tell you who you are. Who your parents are don’t define you.”

“But why wouldn’t it show me?”

Luke looks away.

Then:

“Maybe deep down, you already know where your parents are.”

Finally, Luke finishes cleaning Rey up. He stands with a long sigh, takes the water off the fire, and builds it up again. 

“Get some rest.”

“Will there be another lesson?”

Luke raises an eyebrow and looks out the tiny window. Rey looks back, following his gaze. The sun is rising. It’s already dawn.

“You’re not ready.”

“Wait, for what? I-I am ready! I’ve come this far Master Luke, I-” Rey tries to sit up further, but the pain makes her wince and fall back onto her cot.

Luke turns back from the door, his face unreadable.

“You’re not ready to be who you want to be, Rey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, two chapters in one month! I'm on a roll haha. Things are going to get pretty exciting, and everyone's going to be reunited in the next couple of chapters!! Anyways, I hope you're enjoying Poe's and Rey's arcs so far, I'm having a lot of fun with them!
> 
> Also, thank you so much for 200+ kudos!! That's amazing!


	8. Chapter 8

_“Come on Beebee-Ate, we’ve gotta go!” Poe’s heart pounds in his ears, but the sound isn’t enough to drown out the screams of the villagers as the stormtroopers fire into the crowd. It grows thinner and thinner until Poe can’t bear to look anymore._

_“Hey, you there! Stop right there!”_

_His feet slide and sink as he tries to run up the dune to safety. His mouth is already dry; the static communications between troopers feels electric under his skin as they catch up. He reaches the crest of the dune and Beebee-Ate slides down, rolling after two figures._

_Finn. Rey._

_“Poe! Come on!” they call._

_“Keep going; I’ll catch up!” Poe licks at his lips, chapped from heat and sand, and looks down the dune._

_He jumps, but he goes nowhere. His muscles are tense, knees still locked, frozen mid-action._

_Even with their faces only lit by the fires of Tuanul’s destruction, he can see the horror in Finn and Rey’s eyes. A lightsaber flares to life behind him; the broken hiss is unmistakable over the sounds of the dying village._

_Poe resists, tries to break free of whatever invisible vice is around him as a shadow blurs into the edge of his sight._

_“I didn’t know we had the best pilot in the Resistance on board.”_

_Without any more ceremony, Kylo spears his lightsaber through Poe’s stomach._

_Poe cries out in agony as his stomach burns. The sand slips away from his feet and the night closes in on him, melting into solid durasteel walls._

_Finn and Rey’s voices follow, crying out for him._

_“I’ll come back for you, I promise.”_

_Then, he and Kylo Ren are alone._

_“—what you did with the map.”_

_The lightsaber in his stomach burns hotter and hotter, the restraints around him squeezing his ankles and wrists as Kylo reaches out—and Poe is ready for this, he knows how to keep someone out of his head; his training in the Navy, Leia taught him—Kylo rips right into his mind and Poe screams. There’s no chance, not a ch—_

Poe jolts awake, hands clutching at his stomach. The scream dies in his throat when he looks around. He’s in his quarters on Crait. Safe. Relatively. Poe tries to swallow, but his throat feels rough and raw, voice run hoarse.

Then, he notices the holo.

 _“I’ll come back for you, I promise_ ,” Rey says. Fritzes out. “ _I’ll come back for you, I promise._ ”

“Beebee-Ate, what—” The holo turns off and Beebee-Ate beeps from its charging station.

“That message is for Finn,” he chastises it. “And no, it _doesn’t_ help when I have that dream.”

Beebee-Ate’s dome rolls down and it warbles woefully.

“No, buddy… it’s fine, I know you’re just trying to help. Maybe just—” Poe sighs. “I don’t know. Could you use the recent ones? The one she sent the other day was nice.”

Honestly, he doesn’t even know why he’s doing this. It’s weird, isn’t it? To replay messages from people who you haven’t known for that long? Yeah. It’s definitely weird. Even if they are your friend.

Beebee-Ate replies that Rey just sent a new one while Poe was asleep, and Poe doesn’t even need to ask to see it.

Rey appears at the edge of Poe’s bed, close enough to his outstretched hand that he only needs to lift a finger to disrupt the projection.

“ _I feel like I’m recording a holodiary now_ ,” she admits. Her usual bright smile has dimmed, falling just short of her eyes. _“Like I’m back in my AT-AT just writing down the same entry every other day.”_

She’s not saying something. Something must’ve happened. Poe notices a number of marks on her arms that he’s never seen before, barely discernible through the holo’s fuzziness.

If Rey’s mind is on other things, she doesn’t let on. Instead, she asks about Finn and rambles on about the Jedi texts. Finally, just before she ends the recording, she says:

“ _I need to bring Luke Skywalker back. I don’t know how I’m going to get him to set foot on the_ Falcon. _I think he’s waiting for something. But I don’t know what. I feel we’ve been away long enough, though. I want to come back._ ”

The holo disappears, leaving Poe’s finger tracing the air where her arm was.

Beebee-Ate beeps.

“Not… not right now, buddy. I don’t feel so hot. She doesn’t want to see that.”

Poe wipes the sweat from his brow and pulls the greasy curls away from his face. It’s then he notices his personal comm flashing with an unread message.

He blinks. Most of the message is encrypted, save for the last four digits. 0600. At least Terex is holding up his end of the bargain. 

Poe turns to Beebee-Ate.

“Hey buddy, can you download this? Then take it to intel to see if you can’t get it decoded.” Poe would try to do it himself, but truth is, he’s never been great with encoding and decryption. “Make sure they don’t trace it back to you, okay?”

Beebee-Ate looks at Poe, then focuses on the data chip he takes out of the comm. It warbles nervously, citing all the dangers and consequences of getting caught. Just as it’s about to list decommissioning and Poe getting executed for treason, Poe raises his hand.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. If you want, take Ivee with you, okay? Two droids is less suspicious than one.”

Poe rubs at his eyes, and before Beebee-Ate leaves, asks: “How long was I out for?”

Beebee-Ate beeps.

“ _Fourteen_ hours? Kriffing… Buddy, why didn’t you wake me up?”

Poe flops back onto the pillow when Beebee-Ate replies sheepishly. _General Organa’s orders._ Of course.

It takes him a good minute to pull himself out of bed, aching, shaking _—_ sweating. He doesn’t meet the gaze of anyone he passes in the hallway as he makes his way to the refreshers.

Poe isn’t surprised to see Doctor Kalonia in the medbay after he cleans himself up. He gives her an easy smile as he rests himself on the desk.

“How’s Finn doing?”

Kalonia studies him.

“He’s stable. Should be coming around soon. His back has healed incredibly well superficially, but we won’t know the extent of the internal damage until he’s ready to wake up.”

Poe hasn’t even gotten his mouth half open to ask another question when Kalonia asks: “Finally figured out that the code for the supply container has changed?”

Poe’s entire body suddenly feels uncomfortably warm. This isn’t exactly how he wanted this conversation to go.

“I may have noticed the other day,” he admits. When he had to pull off a perimeter patrol on nothing but forty-five minutes of sleep. He had staggered to the medical bay, sluggish and a little delirious coming off the nap. But the code he had wouldn’t work, even after panic had set in and cleared his head. The adrenaline rush it had induced had barely kept him awake for the whole patrol.

Kalonia is frowning at him. 

“You’re slipping, Dameron.”

Poe swallows, tapping his fingers against his leg. His voice comes out a lot calmer than he feels.

“We’ve been on high alert ever since we’ve landed on Crait and _—_ ”

“Stimulus is not the answer to sleep deprivation. If you’re having trouble sleeping, that’s a serious problem. For you, your squadron, and the Resistance.”

“I just need some energy,” Poe says tightly.

Kalonia steps too close.

“Your eyes are bloodshot,” she observes. “When was the last time you slept, and for how long?”

“I just pulled fourteen hours.” Poe shifts away. “Look, if this is about rationing, I can get General Organa to authorize another supply run.”

Kalonia gives him a hard look.

“I think this is about you now, Commander.” 

Poe looks away, hiding the tic in his jaw. 

Kalonia taps at her datapad. 

“Did you ever see the medtech I recommended to you?”

“I didn’t really see the need. Look, I’m fine,” he says. He just wants to leave now, clear his head _—_

Kalonia meets his eyes.

“I think your time in First Order captivity is catching up to you. This isn’t healthy. If you can’t perform your duties properly, I will have to report this to the General.”

Poe knocks over the medtray closest to him as anger sparks through his veins. Kalonia takes a small step back, betraying her usually cool demeanor. 

There are some pilots, some soldiers... but it was never Poe.

The anger dissipates just as soon as it comes, leaving him ashamed. His shoulders slump, and his voice comes out weaker as he tries one last time.

“I just need—”

“Try to get some rest, Commander Dameron. I’ll be speaking to General Organa about how we can help you.”

Her words are soft, but she gives him a last, hard look before she returns to the other patients. Poe’s jaw twitches. He balls his hands into fists again and squeezes his eyes shut. This really isn’t how he wanted this day to go. 

He picks up the fallen medtray and gathers the supplies back up.

  


* * *

  


Snap, Jess, and Bastian are suited up when they arrive at the command center. Poe stands there by Leia, keeping an eye on Holdo and Talcy with arms crossed over his chest. Holdo has a good sabacc face, always pinched too tightly to reveal any emotion except when she’s discussing non-Resistance related things with Leia. Talcy, well, her face is blank as she looks over her datapad, which certainly isn’t as blank as her face because she’s always typing on it.

The news, judging by Leia’s expression, isn’t good.

“Our message has been sent, but aside from Gatalenta, it’s fallen on deaf ears. I refuse to believe that there’s an entire galaxy out there unwilling to help, willing to just give up their freedom again as if there’s no hope.

“I’m dispatching a small squadron to scout out a few known sympathizers during the Rebellion to see if they can’t be swayed to help again.”

The holomap of the galaxy flares to life and narrows in on the Calamari sector. Poe squints at Mon Cala as Ackbar takes over.

“My people fought against the Separatists, and then the Empire for countless years. We know what it’s like to be chained and enslaved. The galaxy has let the First Order fester silently for too long, we know we have to stop this before it’s too late. I have contacts within the Regency. They will listen and they will gather the forces we need.”

Poe watches the tiniest flicker of emotion spark across Talcy’s face before she glances up and sees him looking. She gives him a small smile and turns back to Leia. 

“I want Black Squadron to undertake this mission,” Leia says. “Get ready, you’re going up in ten. Snap, you’re leading.”

The whole command center goes silent.

“General?” Snap asks.

“I’m grounding Commander Dameron.”

Poe heaves a heavy sigh. He isn’t surprised.

Jess looks from Leia to Poe in disbelief. 

“Poe?”

Poe tries to look casual as he shrugs.

“It’s fine.” He manages to twitch his lips, but it feels more like a grimace than an encouraging smile. “You’ll be fine. I know you guys can do it. You’ve run plenty of successful missions without me, and you even said it, Jess. Maybe things won’t go bad this time.”

Black Squadron leaves reluctantly. As soon as the blast doors are closed, Poe is facing Leia again.

“Leia, they need me. This mission is critical to the Resistance’s future and you decide to ground me now?” His voice cracks, and he cannot stand to see Leia’s face soften into pity for him. “I can’t just leave my Squadron.”

“At ease, Commander Dameron,” Holdo interjects. “If you were my second in command, I’d suspend you for stealing _and_ insubordination.”

Poe takes a sharp step forward, raising his finger before Leia steps in front of him. She nods to Holdo, and Holdo backs off. Poe swallows as Leia meets his eyes with a level gaze.

“I just received Kalonia’s report. Stealing stim shots to keep yourself going? I expected better from you, Poe. Stim shot or no, you’re only going to be a liability.” Leia gives him a once-over. “You barely made it through the mission briefing. I can’t have you on this mission, let alone lead it.

“You’re grounded, Dameron,” she repeats. “Take a nap. And talk to someone.”

Poe swallows again and forces himself to nod, jaw locked. He doesn’t trust himself to say anything else, so he turns to leave before he says anything stupid. 

Suddenly, Leia’s personal commlink beeps. She takes one glance at it, then gives Poe a small smile.

“Head to the medbay.”

Poe scoffs. “With all due respect, I don’t think I should.”

“This isn’t about you, Poe.”

Well, if it isn’t—

_Finn._

“Force or no Force, I don’t like it,” Jess is saying when Poe sprints out of the command center. “Poe! Hey wait, Poe!”

Jess gives a knowing look to Snap. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She jogs up to meet Poe’s stride.

“Is this about you and Snap?” she asks quietly. “Because, I mean, I get it. I’m not really sure why you didn’t just talk to us before taking Rey on that unauthorized mission by yourself. But you had your reasons, and Snap just needs time and a good Poe Dameron pep talk.”

Poe snorts despite himself. 

“It’s got nothing to do with me and Snap, I promise. You should go though, there’s five minutes till take-off.”

Jess frowns, but Poe squeezes her shoulder.

“It’ll be fine, Jess. Good luck, and may the Force be with you.”

“Yeah, you too, Poe.”

Jess leaves with a final nod, and Poe runs.

Finn is sitting up at the edge of the cot when Poe rushes into the medbay. A huge grin breaks across Poe’s face at the sight of Finn up and awake, everything else melting away at the sight of him.

“Oh man.”

“Poe?” Finn looks up immediately, but Poe is already there, engulfing him in a tight hug that leaves Finn gasping. Poe lets go, looking Finn up and down for any sign of pain or discomfort.

“ _Kriff_ , sorry. I didn’t hurt you, did I? They told me Kylo Ren did a number on your back.”

Finn shakes his head.

“No, I’m—it’s just a bit sore.”

“How are your legs?”

“My legs?”

“Yeah, they said—” Poe stops short. He doesn’t want to think about it; he doesn’t want to scare Finn. “Can you feel them?”

“Should I not be able to?”

Poe breathes a sigh of relief.

“Kalonia said we wouldn’t know how bad your injuries were until you woke up. But… this is good, buddy. This is real good. But you must have a thousand and one questions—”

“Where are we? Where’s Rey?”

“We’re on Crait. It’s… probably the farthest thing from the Galactic Core, but we’re safe. For now. Rey is—” Poe looks around before leaning in close to Finn, voice low— “Ahch-To. But that’s strictly classified.”

“Ahch-what?” Finn shakes his head incredulously. “To do what?”

“To find Luke Skywalker.”

Concern creeps onto Finn’s face.

“I thought that was your mission. When did she leave? Is she okay?”

At least Poe can chuckle about it now. “It was, but General Organa’s got something up her sleeves.”

He grips Finn’s shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze until Finn looks back up at him.

“Don’t worry, Finn. She’s safe. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do this.”

“Is she coming back?”

“That’s the plan,” Poe says. “It’s been a few weeks, so I’d say soon. I think. Aw man, Beebee-Ate would have loved to have been here to see you.”

Finn looks around, seeming to only notice now that the little droid isn’t around Poe.

“Is Beebee-Ate okay?” 

“Yeah, it’s just out on a mission. Been helping a new kid. Well, he’s not so new anymore. But Bee likes him, so I let it go when we don’t have anything big planned.”

“Hey, you wanna get some real clothes on?” Poe asks, pointing at the plain white shirt and undergarments Finn’s been in. “I have some extras you can borrow until we get you some of your own. Also—your jacket, the jacket, my jacket—I have a little something for you.”

If Finn hadn’t felt anything wrong before, he does when he tries to stand.

“Poe, what—” His legs instantly buckle underneath him.

“Oh, hey whoa—” Poe catches him, almost sinking to the floor with him before Finn wraps an arm around his back, allowing Poe to hold the small of his. During all of this, Kalonia manages to find the worst time to come back.

She drops the datapad she had been consulting and rushes to help Poe stand Finn up and ease him back onto the cot. 

“I suspected as much,” she says to herself. To them, she says: “You haven’t been on your feet in weeks. It’ll take a bit of time and exercise to get your muscles to where they were.”

“You sure it’s just the muscles?” Poe has to ask, for Finn’s sake.

Kalonia sighs. 

“I’ll run some scans, make sure there’s no spinal damage. If there is, things are going to be much more complicated. But the fact that Finn’s able to sit up on his own and feel his legs is a good sign.”

Poe turns back to Finn when Kalonia leaves and gives him the best smile he can summon.

“This feels weird,” Finn says, looking down at his legs.

“No, no. You heard her, this is good buddy. This is really good,” he promises.

  


* * *

  


All of Finn’s scans come out normal, so all that’s left for him to do is strengthen his legs. Kalonia gives him a pair of crutches, but it’s easiest for him to use one and for Poe to help him on his other side.

Poe has his arm around Finn’s waist now as Finn keeps himself steady with an arm around Poe’s shoulder. They’re making their way to the command center, and Poe couldn’t be less thrilled.

“Who is that?” Finn asks when they reach the command center. 

Poe works his jaw. “One of General Organa’s old pals.” _Thinks she runs the place already_. Poe doesn’t dare say it out loud in front of Leia though. “Rescued her from the First Order.”

“I meant her.” Finn nods towards the girl standing next to Holdo. It’s Pella Talcy. “She looks familiar.”

Every nerve in Poe’s system is set alight. He swallows.

“Your old job?” he asks.

Finn nods. Talcy looks over, and Poe watches the recognition flicker across her eyes when she sees Finn. She glances quickly at Poe to acknowledge him, but then she bounds over, a bright smile breaking across her face.

“FN-2187! I mean, I know that’s not…”

“It’s Finn now,” Finn says.

“Finn,” Talcy repeats, grinning again. “You—you’re incredible. The Order, they tried to say you’re a traitor, that you betrayed them. But… you’re the reason I left. I defected. I couldn’t support them anymore.” 

Talcy looks like she’s about to say more, but Holdo calls her back.

She gives Finn a quick _thank you_ before looking between him and Poe. “Commander Dameron,” she says. “You seem like you’re taking good care of him.”

Holdo has a lot of people convinced.

Poe watches as Leia grants her the position of Vice Admiral in front of the whole command center. They had lost Calen in the battle on Starkiller, and the rank needed to be filled. 

Poe had just thought—well. Poe had thought wrong, apparently.

He crosses his arms over his chest when Leia takes Vice Admiral Holdo’s hands in hers, with the same proud smile she had given Poe when she had said “Commander Dameron” for the first time.

“You don’t trust her,” Finn says quietly. It’s almost drowned out by the applause that follows Holdo as she turns to the rest of the Resistance in the room.

“Didn’t even say thanks for the rescue,” Poe says, eyeing Holdo as she thanks everyone as they leave. “Just told me how I should do my job.”

“Holdo?”

“Yeah, who’d you think I meant?”

“I meant Talcy.”

“Finn, I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her datapad.” 

  


* * *

  


There’s a rare calm in between the salt storms, and Poe takes full advantage of it, sitting beside the hangar bay’s entrance, feeling the sun on his face. He only needs goggles when the ski speeders launch for their routine patrol—one that Poe was going to lead. The new recruits from Gatalenta are excited to stretch their wings, and Poe was excited to experience flying for the first time again through them. 

He had told Rey as much in the last recording he had sent. Though he skipped out on the part where he’s not up there with them. He didn’t want her to worry, especially if the Resistance wasn’t in any sort of real danger. She has enough on her mind as it is, she doesn’t need to worry about him as well. So he told her about the message Terex sent, and how that means being one step closer to Malarus. 

But he paused before he said anything about Finn. Finn should be the one to talk to Rey first, Poe doesn’t feel right taking that away from him.

Poe hears someone approaching slowly with Beebee-Ate just as the salt finishes settling back over the angry red scars of ground the ski speeders leave in their wake. 

“Hey,” Finn says. As the days went by, Finn had been able to lean less and less on Poe until he finally ditched the crutch altogether. He eases himself down beside Poe and Poe takes off the goggles. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this planet before,” Finn comments, scraping the heel of his boot across the salt, leaving a smaller red gash behind. “It’s… pretty,” he finishes, just as Poe says, “I hate it.”

They both laugh. 

“Sure, it’s pretty in its own way,” Poe agrees. “Once you get past the fact that there’s a salt storm literally every other day, you never get to go outside and just _enjoy_ it, there’s salt everywhere _inside_ the base, and—great, now I sound just like Beebee-Ate.”

Beebee-Ate swirls its dome over to Poe and beeps.

“No, that’s not a bad thing, buddy.”

Finn grins and grips Poe’s shoulder. “You’re not that annoying.”

Beebee-Ate trills, offended, and brandishes its shock arm.

“You calling my droid annoying?”

“Orange and white, one of a kind,” Finn mocks him. “Has a map that leads straight—”

Poe goes to jab him in the armpit, but even after a couple weeks in bacta Finn is quick and dodges.

“Glad the First Order didn’t brainwash that sense of humor out of you,” Poe grumbles. Movement catches the corner of his eye, and he looks out to see the ski speeders making another round. Tallie must be having fun.

“You should be out there,” Finn says. “Why did General Organa ground you?”

Poe sighs.

“Stim.”

Finn’s eyebrows raise in surprise.

“You?”

Poe looks away, squinting out into the sun.

“It’s stim, not spice. Synthetic adrenaline. It’s like drinking five shots of caf, but espcaf.”

“We had stim too,” Finn says, watching the speeders. “Some of my squadmates used it before their missions. No one said anything until they started using them for the simulations too. They got thrown out of an airlock.”

“ _Kriff,_ ” Poe mumbles. He _knows_ how bad the First Order is, but he still feels the same gut wrenching disgust he felt when he first read over the evidence file Leia handed him when he was in the Navy. “It’s only—it’s not my abilities. I’m _fine_ , I just haven’t been able to get much sleep lately.”

Poe looks over at Finn and suddenly, he has no idea why he’s hiding this from him. 

“When you came and said that Kylo Ren wanted me again, I thought—I knew I was going to die. He just tore everything down. All the training against interrogation techniques, all the mental blocks _—_ I tried so hard, but he kept chasing me, he saw everything and ripped it from me. And I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I couldn’t go through that again, but I do. Every time I close my eyes.”

Poe takes a shaky breath. It feels like fatigue has permanently settled into his bones, and with that comes the craving for energy, desperate to stay awake. But he feels a bit lighter now that Finn is here, and that it’s something they know and share.

“I don’t think I ever got to thank you,” Poe says. “So thank you. I mean it.”

“I think you’ve said thank you more than a few times,” Finn points out. “General Organa, too.”

Poe nods, but he doesn’t want to let this go. He throws his arm around Finn and squeezes his shoulder.

“Not for the mission. My life, Finn. Thank you for saving my life.”

“You know… I didn’t just save you because I needed a pilot.” Finn is quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath. “I was stationed just outside the interrogation room. He had been waiting there for hours. He killed the last officer that couldn’t get anything out of you. Then he took over and… I never heard anything like that before.” 

There’s a long, heavy silence between them.

Finally, after a while Finn says: “You think… there are any more like her? Talcy, I mean.”

Poe runs the probabilities in his head, relieved that Finn changed the subject.

“Stormtroopers? Possibility. Officers join because they want to, not because they’re kidnapped and brainwashed. 

“But it hasn’t been long since we destroyed _Starkiller_. I have a hard time believing anyone was brave enough to defect after you. General Hux probably put the fear of the Supreme Leader in everyone. Even if someone did, why would Holdo trust anyone that intimately after so little time?”

“Hope,” Finn says, as if it should be the obvious answer. Should it be?

Poe opens up his personal comm. The message is fuzzy now; it got corrupted when Beebee-Ate tried to decrypt it. Beebee-Ate had apologized profusely for it, but Poe knows it was the consoles in the command center that have more dust in their archives than actual files.

Now, days later, he’s still no closer to salvaging what he can from the message. He fiddles with it for a moment before Terex’s face becomes as clear as day against the salt. 

He hears Finn breathe in sharply beside him.

“You know him?” Poe asks.

“Yeah—” Finn begins, but is interrupted by the messaging starting to replay.

It’s ruined. Terex’s voice jumps octaves too high and then too low every other syllable, the image distorts in a blur of static on every high octave, and finally the message ends with a screech that had Poe ripping off the headset the first time he heard it. The only thing salvageable is the _0600_ from before.

“Terex? Really?” Finn says after he’s watched the loop twice. “Even Phasma knew she couldn’t trust him to—wait.”

Poe doesn’t like the hard look Finn gives him.

“Don’t say anything to anyone,” Poe says quickly. “If I get caught handling informants the Resistance doesn’t know about, stim is the last thing i’ll be worrying about.”

“You were his mission that whole time,” Finn says instead. “Poe, he has a vendetta against you, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I know he has it out for me, and it’s hopefully going to keep me one klick ahead of him,” Poe says calmly. “I’m flattered he mentioned me though. How’d you know about that?”

“I was sanitation,” Finn reminds him. “No one expects sanitation. Or a good stormtrooper.”

“Right,” Poe grins. That’s the plan. Hopefully no one on the other side expects a man with a violent vendetta against Poe Dameron.

“I’ve been working on it for a few days,” Poe says as Finn looks at the hologram run again. “I’m not that great with decryptions and I’m uh—having a hard time tracking down someone who is.”

“Oh-six-hundred. Could be a timestamp, but that’s not much to go on,” Finn muses. 

“I know.” Poe sighs and lets it play again, no closer to figuring it out.

The alarm starts sounding inside the hangar bay, sending Poe and Finn scrambling to get up. Over the blaring sirens, Poe hears a telltale sonic boom from up in the atmosphere. He looks up to see a star destroyer looming above.

“ _Pfassking_ … Finn! We’ve gotta get to the command center!”

“Right ahead of you, Poe,” Finn says, leading the way through the hangar bay.

When they burst into the command center, all of the commanding officers, Leia, Holdo, Statura, Ackbar, and Holdo’s lackey Talcy are gathered around the command table. Leia, at least, looks relieved to see him.

“General Organa—”

“Commander Dameron, Finn. We only have one way out, and the _Finalizer_ just deployed all TIE squadrons. The evacuation has started, but I don’t know how many of us will make it.”

 _“_ So we’re trapped,” Poe says.“Let me fly. Get all squadrons up so we can hold off the TIEs while the cruisers evacuate, then regroup.”

“We don’t know if there are any other destroyers out there,” Holdo points out. “The First Order could have sent its entire fleet and we would be headed right into a slaughter.”

“I’ll worry about that, Vice Admiral,” Poe says, matching her glare. He turns to Leia. “Leia, please. Let me fly.”

Leia nods.

“Permission granted. Call all squadrons, Commander.”

Poe nods back with a silent thank you before turning to Finn. 

“You okay here?”

Finn nods. “I’ve got this.”

“Good.”

Finn may need a pilot, but he knows strategies and tactics and can hold his own in here against Holdo.

  


* * *

  


“ _Not that I want to rub salt in an old wound, but I’m glad to have you here, Poe,_ ” Tallie says as Poe and Blue Squadron meet the TIE fighters above the hangar bay, Cobalt Squadron right behind them.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Tallie,” Poe says. 

Beebee-Ate screeches as laser fire just grazes his wing, and Poe shakes the thoughts out of his head. There’s nothing for it now, just live or die fighting.

He thrusts _Black One_ into a spiral to avoid another incoming TIE and dives down.

“We get ‘em, buddy?” he asks. 

Beebee-Ate beeps, affirming that they crashed together. Poe grins, mentally thanking Rey for that one. 

_“I’ve got eyes on the first cruiser, Poe,”_ Tallie says.

“Good, cause I’ve got eyes on a squad of bombers at chrono-one.” Poe grits his teeth, and flies straight to the formation of TIE bombers. All he needs to do right now is get out of atmo to see whatever else the First Order brought. “Tallie, I need some cover.”

 _“We’ve got your back, Commander,”_ someone replies. Poe looks out his viewport to see Green Squadron A-wings flying in formation up behind him. The TIE bombers break off, but Poe intercepts the last one on the right wing and sends it crashing down in flames. _“Whenever you’re ready.”_

 _“Poe, you’ve picked up another fighter,”_ Tallie warns. He can hear the concern in her voice. Two fighters, he’s usually never that careless. Then again, he’s flying on his own adrenaline, and that’s now calmed to a dull hum in his veins.

“I’ve got him.” Poe looks down, seeing the scars of red tracks, Crait’s soil, exposed like veins underneath the salt. He had scraped the toes of his boots through that salt after the storms, disgusted, a countless number of times. Now, maybe it’d actually be useful. If not, he’s really in trouble.

Beebee-Ate beeps in surprise as Poe brings _Black One_ into a dive.

“Don’t worry, buddy. I know what I’m doing,” Poe says. He hopes.

He pulls hard on the yoke and brings the X-wing up in a sharp arc. It’s a bit too close, and Poe almost loses the bottom starboard laser cannon, but it works; bright crimson ground spits up behind Poe’s starboard side, hitting the TIE fighter right in the viewport. The TIE breaks off quickly, but it’s not enough, an A-wing is right there, shooting it down just as it gets clear of the dust.

“Thanks, Green Leader.”

_“Not a bad stunt, Commander.”_

_“Medical frigate is up,_ ” Tallie reports. _“They’ll want this one bad.”_

“Alright, new plan,” Poe says. “All squads, kick up as much salt and dust as we can, shield the transports from the bombers. I’m heading up, see what else we’ve got waiting for us.”

 _“Wait,”_ Finn’s voice comes over _Black One_ ’s comm. _“We have the speeders.”_

“The ski speeders? They’re junk,” Poe says. “They’re only good for scouting.”

 _“Not right now they’re not,”_ Finn assures him. _“Can we get all of them prepped to go?”_

“It’s a suicide mission, Finn, they’ll never be able to get back to the transports in time.”

“ _We’ll worry about that, Poe,_ ” Leia says. _“You just worry about what’s out there.”_

Moments later, a squad of broken-down hulls skate out of the hangar bay, kicking up red lines behind them. Within a minute, the fleet of transports nearly disappears in the red dust.

Poe laughs. 

“I like the way you think, Finn.”

Poe pulls the stick, sending _Black One_ into a steep climb. Fighters from Green Squadron flank him as he breaks away from the fight. A few TIEs give chase, but Poe loses them easily when they realize he’s making a break for atmo. Crait’s blue sky fades away, revealing the dark abyss of space. Poe looks around, and finds nothing.

He breathes a sigh of relief.

“The First Order is getting cocky. It’s only the _Finalizer.”_

 _“Good work, Commander,”_ Leia says.

 _“Careful, Poe,”_ Finn says. _“They don’t let ships just fly past.”_

“Don’t worry, I’m just going back to kick some more—”

Beebee-Ate trills, pulling _Black One_ into a sharp left turn. Poe is slammed against the side with the sudden force of it.

“Buddy what the—” Poe sees the green laser fire rocket past _Black One’s_ viewport. “You’re right, that’s too close for comfort.”

Poe takes control again, swinging the X-wing around. The craft that had taken a shot on him is already speeding back to Crait. Poe adjusts the throttle and engages the thrusters just to keep up. 

“Hey Finn, they got a new TIE model they’re trying out?” He squints, wondering what model that is; it’s certainly no TIE fighter he’s ever seen.

Poe fires on it before anyone responds, but the fighter spins, dodging his laser fire easily. Just when Poe thinks he’s gained on it, he’s fired on again.

Poe pulls back, a new wave of adrenaline coursing through his body. 

“ _Backwards_ facing lasers?” he says in disbelief. Beebee-Ate titters nervously. “Hey, that doesn’t mean anything. Just that they aren’t good enough to shake someone off.”

 _“What do you mean, a new model?”_ Finn asks. And _oh_ , that’s not good.

The TIE fighter pulls up, forcing Poe to make another sharp turn to avoid crashing. Suddenly, he’s being fired on again.

It’s a slow, spiralling descent back to Crait, full of twists and turns and swoops and death rolls that turn Poe’s stomach in a sick sort of way he hasn’t felt since his first Navy days.

“They got a new ace pilot up their sleeves we don’t know about yet?” Poe asks when he can see the billowing cloud of red dust again. He keeps firing when he sees the opportunity, but this guy seems to know when he’s going to fire even before he does. _Where did they find this guy?_

At least more than half the fleet is either up or taking off. They’ll only have to hold out for a little while longer. How much longer with this new hotshot, Poe isn’t so sure.

_“Wait, the one you’re trailing?”_

“Yeah,” Poe says. “Sleek, black, nice for First Order standards, backwards facing laser cannons. Can’t get a shot on him worth anything.”

That’s not so easy to admit.

_“That’s the Silencer, that’s Kylo Ren’s ship. Poe, you need to get that thing away from our fleet.”_

Poe’s blood freezes as if he’s just been pushed out of an airlock. He swallows the lump from his throat and forces himself to look at the _Silencer_ , pushing the walls of the interrogation cell to the corners of his periphery. 

Whatever he’s feeling, Leia must be feeling something a lot worse.

He hasn’t flown against Kylo Ren since they were barely teens, back when he was just Ben Solo and everything was a hell of a lot easier. 

Poe had thought the interrogation would be the only memory haunting him. He gets caught up in his own thoughts, and Kylo Ren slides in right behind him, forcing Poe into another death roll to avoid the blaster fire.

There’s no trace of the boy he flew with. None of the maneuvers feel familiar, refined to the point where his patterns and skills are completely alien to Poe. 

Poe swerves to avoid more laser fire, but Kylo Ren has already locked onto his next target.

“ _A little help here,_ ” Green Leader says.

“I’m on him,” Poe assures him, but it’s too late. Kylo Ren fires, and the A-wing crashes with a burst of fire and dust. Poe slams his console. “Kriff!”

Kylo Ren takes out another Green Squadron A-wing and a bomber before Poe breaks and launches a proton torpedo. There’s a moment of sweet satisfaction to quench the hot anger burning in his chest as Kylo Ren tries to shake the torpedo off. Those backwards laser cannons come in handy for him, but it’s a close call, and Poe hopes there are scorch marks on the back of the _Silencer_ as the torpedo explodes near the stern.

It works though, Kylo Ren arcs back to give Poe chase. Almost all of the fleet is up at the edge of atmo, waiting for the go-ahead to jump. The _Finalizer,_ slowly but surely, is making its way towards them.

“Tallie! Take Blue and Cobalt Squadrons and go take out all the cannons you can on the _Finalizer._ We’re not gonna have a fleet if that thing gets within firing range. I’ll stay here and lead Green Squad, keep Kylo Ren off your tails.”

_“Copy that, Poe.”_

_Make it quick._ Poe’s hands, clammy inside his gloves, are starting to shake as he shoots down another TIE fighter.

Finally, Leia makes the call.

_“All squadrons, start making your way towards atmo and get ready for the jump. We’re sending coordinates your way now.”_

“You got those coordinates, Beebee-Ate?” Poe asks.

Beebee-Ate beeps positively.

“Green Squadron, form up. Things are gonna get pretty hairy.”

“ _We’re with you, Commander.”_

How hairy it would get, Poe had never considered. Kylo Ren forms a squad from the leftover TIE fighters and pursues, forcing Poe and Green Squadron to fight for every inch of air up to the edge of atmo. Crafts, both TIE and A-wing explode around him.

“No, no, no, no…” Poe looks outside his viewport to see the last A-wing’s port engine catch fire before exploding, sending the rest of it hurtling back down towards Crait just as they hit the edge of atmo. Another pilot Poe never knew the name of. “Come on, come on! Tallie, take Blue and Cobalt Squads back to the fleet now!”

 _“Poe, we’re preparing to jump,”_ Finn says. _“Get back to the_ Raddus! _”_

“We can’t leave without Blue and Cobalt Squads! They’re all we have left!”

Poe joins them, zipping through the _Finalizer_ ’s exterior scaffolding to destroy one of the ventral cannons.

For one moment, Poe is relieved to have Kylo Ren off his tail, but when he tries to spot him again, time slows down.

“Tallie, watch—!” Poe blinks, and she’s gone; stardust in an explosion that the _Silencer_ flies through unscathed. “ _No!_ ”

“Change of plans, Beebee-Ate,” Poe says, gritting his teeth. Beebee-Ate beeps negatively, translated droidspeak begging him not to do what Beebee-Ate thinks he’s going to do. “Sit tight. Blue Squadron, Cobalt Squadron, head in. The _Raddus_ ’s hangar bay is open.”

_“And what the hell are you going to do, Poe?”_

“Buy you guys some time,” Poe says, flying straight for the _Silencer_.

 _“Fall back, Commander!”_ Leia’s voice cuts through. _“That is an order!”_

Poe fires on another TIE, bringing it down.

“General, if I don’t we’re going to lose a whole other squadron, if we’re lucky.”

Kylo Ren has locked on to another bomber, but before he can fire, Poe launches the rest of his proton torpedoes. All five arc towards the _Silencer_ , brilliant white comets that have Kylo Ren falling back from the bomber.

Poe turns around again, ignoring orders shouted at him through the comm, and fires at the remaining TIE fighters.

Suddenly, all the fighters break off and fly towards the _Finalizer_.Beebee-Ate trills. 

“Yes, _now_ we can get back to the fleet,” Poe assures it. He engages the thrusters and points _Black One_ straight at the _Raddus_. “Or…” Checking his scope, Poe sees that he spoke too soon. An enemy fighter is coming up on him fast. “I thought those torpedos would have held him off longer. Hold on, buddy.”

This time, he can’t shake off Kylo Ren for anything. He swallows, but his throat is so dry that it sticks and he can’t quite catch that next breath.

 _“Stand down, Commander!”_ Leia shouts.

“What, afraid I’ll finally take Kylo Ren down?”

Poe’s blood runs cold immediately after he says it. The silence at the other end of the comm is louder, worse than the constant chatter of before. 

He disengages and prays to the stars that he has something left in him to make it back.

 _Black One_ is fast, but Poe knows that the _Silencer_ is faster yet. 

_“Leia, we need to go_ ,” Poe hears. He grits his teeth, willing himself not to say anything else stupid, especially where Holdo is concerned.

He just hopes, prays, that Leia will hold off a few more moments.

Then Finn’s voice is there, grounding him, guiding him back to the _Raddus._

_“Come on Poe, you have to make it.”_

Suddenly, _Black One_ rocks violently, and the starboard engine explodes.

Poe’s heart leaps into his throat and stays lodged there, thumping frantically as he checks the diagnostics. He’s losing control of the X-wing as it begins to favor its port-side. He smells it too, as the engine leaks fuel into the cockpit.

“Beebee-Ate see if you can’t do anything about that,” Poe says, already starting to feel light-headed. Beebee-Ate disappears into the stern of the X-wing with a litany of terrified beeps. 

Poe wants to comfort it, he does, but he doesn’t want the last thing Beebee-Ate to see is the _Silencer_ right on top of them. Poe reroutes all emergency fuel to the port engine, hoping that will give them time before the starboard engine explodes and takes the whole craft with it.

The hangar bay entrance gets bigger and bigger the closer Poe gets, but Kylo Ren is right behind him. And wouldn’t it be just terrific if Kylo was waiting for him to just make it, then blow him to smithereens and take out a hangar with him.

At this point, with little control and a major fuel leak, Poe is dead in the water no matter what he does.

More laser fire shoots past his viewport, and Poe braces for that combustion, the cold pull of space—

It never comes.

 _Black One_ ’s sonar sounds, indicating another ship incoming on his starboard side. Poe cranes his neck, and sees the vague shape of the _Lady Luck_ in his periphery. She fires past Poe, grazing the _Silencer_ before Kylo Ren pulls off.

“ _Yeehaw! Looks like I’m a little late to the party,_ _did I miss anything?”_

Poe’s vision swims and his head pounds. He screams as he pulls the control stick to port, trying to force _Black One_ upright again before the engines totally fail and the cockpit is crushed on impact.

 _At least I’ll die on a Resistance ship_. It’s Poe’s last thought as _Black One_ careens in flames through the _Raddus_ ’s open bay, nearly belly-up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about the wait, I would have liked to have updated a lot sooner than this but November is Hell Month. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter though, it's definitely the longest at like 7.5k. Let me know what you think!
> 
> And get ready for that sweet, sweet ReySky angst next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is just a brief warning before the chapter: there will be violence. None of the descriptions will be crazier than what they have been, but some people will lose some limbs. If that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to shoot me a message on [tumblr](https://officialscarif.tumblr.com) or comment here and I'll be happy to fill you in on what happens.
> 
> I also wanted to thank [Supremequeenofthenerds](http://supremequeenofthenerds.tumblr.com) for beta'ing this chapter for me last minute, she is amazing. Any mistakes left are my own.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Rey breathes in, letting the salty sea air fill her lungs, and holds it. Her mind empties with the next exhale. For the moment, there’s nothing, only peace. The island, the life around her, the Force, Luke’s voice.

“Good. Good. Let it all go. Let the Force flow through you, immerse yourself.”

Rey breathes in again and—

The Force carries a sharp cry that pierces right through her mind. Rey gasps in pain and echoes the cry as her body combusts with white hot heat. She falls over, and when she opens her eyes she sees Luke has abandoned his meditation as well, hand outstretched and worried.

Rey breathes hard as the pain ebbs slowly from her body. She lets Luke pull her up, grip strong and sure.

“What did you see, Rey?”

Rey shakes her head; she doesn’t exactly know what that was, or where it came from.

“I heard someone—someone screaming. There was... a lot of pain. What—what was that?”

Luke hums gravely and closes his eyes.

“A disturbance in the Force.”

“Do you know where it came from?” Rey asks urgently, thinking of the Resistance. Then she shakes her head again. Luke wouldn’t have felt it.

“I-I’m sorry. What does it mean?” She asks instead.

“It could mean anything,” Luke says. “You could have felt that from a planet you’ve never even known existed. From someone you’ve never known.”

Rey doesn’t like that answer, but when she reaches out again to try to connect with whatever that vision showed her, nothing comes. 

Finn, Poe, and Leia’s faces flash through her mind. For a moment she lets her longing for them overtake her, and her chest aches with the intensity of it. Not even the regular holos from Poe could make up for that distance now.

Finally, Rey takes a steadying breath, and says what she’s been wanting to say for the past few weeks.

“It was the Resistance, I know it was. If I really need more training, can’t we train with them? It’s a cycles-long travel, we could even train on the _Falcon._ They need your help, Master Skywalker.“ 

Luke turns away, stepping closer to the edge of the cliff that overlooks the sea, silent.

Anger bubbles up inside Rey’s chest. 

“With all due respect,” Rey says, gritting her teeth, “Leia sent me to find you, and bring you back. The Resistance needs you, your sister needs you. I can’t just sit here and meditate all day, I can do that anywhere!”

Rey hopes to get a rise out of Luke by saying that; make him feel the desperation she’s feeling, or even just to make him feel bad.

But he doesn’t answer and she realizes maybe it’s Luke Skywalker who isn’t ready to face what’s to come, not her.

“Is this for that night by the well?” Rey continues, furious that he won’t even look at her. “Are you punishing me?”

She’s no stranger to indignation, her years on Jakku were full of it. Unkar Plutt’s punishments were endless. No rations if she didn’t manage to meet the daily quota, her water supply cut after a day’s work in the Graveyard for keeping a part for herself, or for giving it to another scavenger who needed the rations more. Was this the same idea? Keeping her from going anywhere?

“I don’t think you’re ready to face what’s next, Rey,” Luke says, finally turning back to her.

“Then why won’t you tell me what I’m supposed to do? What I’m supposed to face?”

“Because It’s not my place!” Luke takes two quick strides toward her. “This is your journey. Not mine. I can only teach you what I know. Whatever comes next and how you face it is up to you.”

Rey steps away and walks back into the cave, sensing that this conversation has spiralled out of control. But Luke says one more thing.

“You’re too much like him.”

Rey whirls around.

“Like who? Kylo Ren? Am I too eager to become powerful?”

Disapproval flashes in Luke’s eyes.

“Like your father,” he counters. “He always wanted to know too much.”

“You knew my father?” The galaxy shifts beneath her. All this time, she had thought she could learn to use the Force to help find them, but Luke knew all along.

“I knew who your father was, Rey. But he’s been gone a long time.”

Her hand flies to her mouth, holding back the sob threatening to strangle her.

“He’s gone? They’re… dead?”

“He’s—he’s gone”

The cave’s walls seem to close in around her as Luke steps forward. His hand closes gently around her shoulder, holding her as she cries.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, Rey.”

  


* * *

  


_“You’re so much like he was_ ,” Luke had said. “ _Brave, strong, everyone said he had his mother’s heart. But he had too much of his father in him. He was always looking ahead to the stars, to the future; never at where he was, or what he was doing.”_

Back in the comfort of the _Falcon,_ Rey wipes at her face again, feeling Luke’s phantom touch from when he had wiped her tears away on the cliff. Luke had done his best when he tried to comfort her, but Rey aches now. She aches for her father, for her mother. She desperately wants to fill in those faceless shadows that she’s chased through her dreams for as long as she can remember.

Rey doesn’t sleep easily. She dreams of her father, sitting on the cliff to meditate as she does. She can’t see him. Ahch-To’s twin suns are blinding even as they began to disappear over the horizon. She can’t hear her own voice when she cries out for him, nor does he. When she reaches out, he vanishes, cloak billowing away in the wind, just out of her grasp. 

The light fades and Rey’s chest fills with that familiar sense of dread, sitting as heavy as a stone in her lungs. 

She steels herself to watch as stormtroopers march inside Crait’s hangar bay. She runs past them, feeling the dread build and build, but none of them seem to notice her. Only Kylo Ren looks up from the holomap being projected in the command center. 

He watches her as she examines the map of the galaxy, the sector familiar. It zooms in, until Rey is staring at a fuzzy holo of Ahch-To.

 _“I had thought Starkiller proved the Resistance to be more organized than Hux or Snoke expected.”_ Kylo Ren says, looking up at Rey through his mask. _“I was wrong.”_

Kylo Ren’s fist grips the holo, crushing it. The image of Ahch-To fritzes out once, and dies.

_“I see it. I see the island.”_

Rey wakes with her heart pounding. Her clammy hands rip the blanket from her body as she bolts from the bunk.

“Artoo? Chewie?” She panics, reaching for her lightsaber. Artoo slowly comes back to full power and Chewie gurgles sleepily. “Where’s Master Skywalker?”

Chewie replies that he’s where he usually is, in his hut this late, but when he senses Rey’s panic he’s immediately more alert, grabbing his bowcaster to follow her. 

“Artoo, Chewie, can you prep the _Falcon_? They’re coming. I need to get Master Skywalker.”

Artoo and Chewie agree and head to the cockpit. Rey sprints from the _Falcon_ , up to the endless stone steps to try to find Luke.

He’s not in his hut, and the longer Rey looks, the more desperate she becomes. She needs to find him. Something tells her that this wasn’t just another nightmare. Kylo Ren is coming.

Rey finds Luke sitting at the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea. He’s watching the moon when Rey’s heavy footsteps crash into the serenity of the moment. She opens her mouth, but the warning dies in her throat. Luke isn’t watching the moon. He’s watching the star destroyer beside it, and the lone squad of TIE fighters screaming towards the island.

Rey can see the shape of a First Order shuttle now, carved into the light of the moon; a black scar that grows wider and wider the closer it gets.

“Master Skywalker, we have to go.” Rey reaches out, hoping that Luke will take her hand.

For one tense moment, Luke considers it, then Rey.

“Master, _please._ The Resistance needs you, Leia needs you. _I_ need you. _”_

Luke rises, and Rey catches a glimpse of his lightsaber settled at his hip before his robes fall over it again. 

The _Falcon_ flies overhead, blasting a TIE fighter out of the sky. The damaged fighter erupts into flames and hurtles into the side of the cliff. Rey almost falls over as tremors shake the meditation slab, but Luke is there, steadying her.

With one last look, they both run through the cave to meet up with the _Falcon_. 

Rey hopes, desperately, that they can escape before Kylo Ren finds them. The last time they fought is seared into her memory like a brand—her blaster, useless against the Force as he threw her away like a tooka doll, waking only to think he had killed Finn, barely hanging on until she had finally given in and let the Force guide her.

But Luke stops short just ahead of her and a chill runs down Rey’s spine. Just over the ridge, she can see the Lanai village burning, the smoke and flames carrying the screams of the villagers up along the cliffs. Closer still is Kylo Ren watching it burn.

“I’ve found you, old man.” Kylo turns and pulls out his lightsaber, igniting the red blade. He twirls the blade in his hand, ready.

In all of her visions, Rey had never seen him with the mask on. But he stands before them now, looking exactly as he had before, when he had chased Rey down on Takodana.

“After what, more than ten years?” Luke retorts.

“Long enough.”

The _Falcon_ swoops overhead, blasting another TIE to bits. Rey can sense the tension in Kylo now, sees his free hand tightening into a fist.

Rey ignites her own blade, but Luke holds out his hand behind him.

“Rey, you need to be ready when the _Falcon_ comes.”

Rey shakes her head.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“This isn’t your fight, scavenger,” Kylo snarls. “You don’t have any part in this.”

Suddenly, Luke’s lightsaber flares to life.

“Leave her alone,” he warns.

“I’ll deal with her after I get rid of you.”

Kylo Ren swings first, and Rey can feel his excitement as he bringings the fiery blade down in one heavy arc towards Luke, only to be met with the cool green flare of Luke’s saber. The hunger coursing through him now is raw and primal, like a beast finally pouncing on its prey. Rey watches, breath caught in her throat as the blades crackle and hiss where the plasma meets.

But Luke is struggling against Kylo’s rage without the Force to help him, and when he slips, Rey is right there. She fakes a jab at Kylo’s side, allowing Luke to duck away. 

A low, frustrated growl comes from the mask and Kylo elbows Rey in the stomach, so close to her blade that Rey can smell the stench of burning fabric as she’s knocked away. Her heart slams against her chest, but she knows she can’t give into her fear, not now.

“Let her go, Ben! This is between you and me.”

“You’re so right,” Kylo says and swings his saber. “I don’t need her interfering again.”

Rey twists her blade, her belly burning with hatred. She prepares to lunge, but as she swings her lightsaber, she’s unable to finish the move as the familiar vice of the Force wraps itself around her like it had in the forest.

“ _No!_ ” She roars as Kylo turns his back to her. He faces Luke, who’s recovered from the first blow. He has his lightsaber ready, his stance defensive as Kylo stalks towards him.

Red meets green again and again. Rey watches in terrified awe. Luke and Kylo Ren know each other, each other’s moves, each other’s styles. It’s as graceful as it is dangerous, brute force meeting an elegant, unrelenting defence. They’re more evenly matched now, with Kylo’s focus split to keep Rey pinned where she stands. 

Rey struggles against the Force’s binds, but it’s as useless as it was back on Takodana, even as she calls out to the Force around her to release her.

If Rey’s struggling causes Kylo to lose focus on Luke, it doesn’t show. In a risky move, he swings his saber hard, knocking Luke’s grip off his own slightly. Luke doesn’t have time to recover before Kylo is thrusting his palm out, creating a Force that knocks Luke back closer to the edge of the cliff.

“You never did fight fair,” Luke says, stretching his arm out towards his lightsaber.

It doesn’t move. Not even twitch or shake. Rey watches the growing desperation on Luke’s face with horror as Kylo Ren advances.

“Ah, I see now,” Kylo Ren says, “why you made it so difficult to be found. What did it feel like, cutting yourself from the Force? Like this?”

Kylo Ren lashes out with his blade, cutting off the outstretched mech hand. Luke screams in agony, falling back.

“Master Skywalker!” Tears well up, stinging Rey’s eyes as Kylo holds the hilt of his blade in both hands, raising it above his head. She can’t go through this again, she can’t watch Kylo kill Luke like he had killed Han.

“Don’t worry,” Kylo says as if he’s heard something not meant for him. “You’ll be seeing her again soon.”

Rey watches Kylo bring the saber down. Luke’s eyes fall shut, and Rey can feel the pain he’s in, his hand, his entire body—

Time seems to slow as Rey feels the Force swelling around her. Her heart races against her chest as Kylo falters, and she knows he feels it too. The energy around them pulses stronger and stronger, gathering like an oncoming sandstorm too quick to take shelter from, fixing on a set point: Luke.

The Force is coming to him. He’s letting it back in.

The energy spins and grows around them, collecting until it seems to disappear. Rey is stunned, the only thing she can hear is the one lone breath that seems to echo inside of her. Then, Luke releases it, and it’s like a tidal wave.

Kylo is knocked back, and Rey grits her teeth, feeling the Force’s velocity push against his restraints. They weaken as Kylo’s concentration is all but lost, and she closes her eyes too, focusing on that weakness until the restraints are broken.

Even now, with the Force flowing through him, Luke falls back, too weak to stand.

Instead, Rey charges, igniting her lightsaber with a battlecry.

Kylo barely has time to stagger back up onto his feet before Rey is slashing at him. He barely manages to block it, but Rey knows that she can’t fend him off this time. She has to end it, before Kylo Ren makes good on his promise. 

“Has he disappointed you yet, Rey?” Kylo asks once he’s regained his footing. He sounds… amused. Angry, frustrated, but amused “Have you learned anything from a sad old man who’s broken so easily?”

“He’s taught me plenty more than you ever could,” Rey snarls.

Kylo growls and punches Rey straight across the jaw, sending her staggering off to her left. She has no time to recover before he’s arcing his blade, searing a long gash across her arm that _burns._ Rey cries out in pain, but focuses enough to regain her footing. She can’t lose now, not when she’s the only thing standing between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker.

She thrusts her hand out, feeling the Force well up behind her. Kylo is quick to react, meeting her with his own energy. The energy around them clashes in the middle, pushing and pulling as they both struggle to gain the upperhand, gathering energy until it’s too much for either of them to handle. The energy bursts like a bubble, sending them both flying.

Rey scrambles to her feet, grabbing her lightsaber before Kylo pulls himself up. She runs towards him, feeling the Force flowing through her. She focuses it and lifts Kylo up by his cowl and smashes the side of his helmet into the rocky cliff. Kylo groans, furious, but Rey has the hilt of her saber pressed to the other side, ready to ignite it. She is ready, willing to put a stop to all this but then—

 _No._ It’s not the Jedi way.

Rey smashes the hilt of her lightsaber into the side of Kylo Ren’s helmet instead. He slumps down before she can really see the extent of the damage, but she’s caught enough off-guard that he’s able to muster up the strength and push her back again.

Rey hits the back of her head against the rocky ground, sparking stars and pain as Kylo Ren comes into focus, looming over her again.

“You should’ve killed me when you had the chance.”

Half of his helmet has been broken and ripped off to reveal more than she wants to see of his face. A bloodshot eye fixated on her, burning with hatred, the huge scar she left on Starkiller ripped open anew in some places, blood trickling down his face and staining his pale lips crimson.

A dark red spot lands on her tunic wrap.

“You’re a monster,” Rey hisses.

“Yes,” Kylo snarls, igniting his lightsaber over her. “Yes I am.”

Rey’s heart stops in her chest as Kylo brings the red blade over her. Then, out of the corner of her eye she sees Luke’s saber ignite again. Her eyes go wide as she watches Luke swing his blade. Noticing Rey’s expression, Kylo falters, but it’s too late. The green blade arcs up and severs Kylo’s arm.

Rey rolls out from under him, hearing the lightsaber clatter uselessly to the ground. Kylo Ren falls to his knees, screaming in agony.

And finally, _finally_ , Chewie brings the _Falcon_ in close enough for them. 

Rey turns to Luke, looking for the stump where his hand used to be. It’s hidden under the sleeve, tucked against his chest.

“Are you okay?”

Luke grimaces.

“I’ll live.”

They do their best to run towards the _Falcon_ as the loading ramp opens for them. Chewie helps Luke up the ramp as Rey turns back one last time to see Kylo staggering to his feet, clutching at what’s left of his shoulder. He looks up and their eyes meet. Humiliation _burns_ within him so strongly that Rey can feel the heat of it under her own skin. She knows then, deep in her very soul, that only one will walk away when this fight is truly over.

She turns and walks up the ramp without looking back.

  


* * *

  


Nothing is ever easy with the First Order. The _Finalizer_ is there, along with an even bigger star destroyer looming behind it, lying in wait.

Luke slumps into the chair behind Chewie, despite Rey and Chewie urging him to rest.

“Stay as far away as you can,” he says. “They’ll be ready with a tractor beam.”

“Artoo, start prepping for the jump to lightspeed,” Rey adds. “We’ll hold them off as long as we can.”

Chewie roars, unsure of where they’re even going to go.

“Yavin,” Luke gasps. “Yavin IV.”

Artoo beeps affirmatively, and Rey turns back to the _Finalizer_. A squadron of TIEs is coming at them.

“Chewie, get ready,” Rey says.

Chewie roars and Rey pulls the _Falcon_ into a dive under the squad. It breaks off and reassembles, but none of them seem to be firing. Suddenly the comms unit lights up with an incoming hail, and Rey and Chewie exchange a look.

“Artoo, how long until you have the coordinates set?”

Artoo beeps that it won’t be long. Rey looks at Luke and he nods, so she presses the button and accepts the incoming message.

“Captain Skywalker, this is General Hux of the First Order. We have you surrounded; stand down and your ship won’t be obliterated.” 

Rey takes a deep breath and presses the comms to reply. 

“General Hux, this is Rey, Captain of the _Millennium Falcon.”_ She glances back at Artoo and Luke, who nod and give her the okay. “While that is a very kind offer—” she and Chewie grip the throttle— “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. I would rather live on Jakku the rest of my life than be a _guest_ aboard your ship again.”

Rey cuts the communication and and pushes the throttle with Chewie.

“Punch it!”

The tunnel of stars wraps around them, and then Rey feels the harsh pull of inertia as they’re launched into hyperspace.

Rey breathes a sigh of relief and falls back into her seat. A moment of silence goes by.

“You did great, kid.”

For one moment it sounds like Han, but she looks back and Luke has a smile on his face. 

Feeling a little lighter, Rey offers a small smile back.

  


* * *

  


Chewie chuffs quietly, telling Rey to get some rest. Rey opens her mouth, ready to say that she can take one more shift, but he flicks on autopilot to make his point. Rey looks back to the hyperspace tunnel, at the stars and planets flying by, and knows she’s been caught stalling.

“Alright,” Rey says.

Chewie waits until she’s out of her chair and walking out of the cockpit first. It grates on her nerves, whatever’s left of them, but she knows that Chewbacca knows that she’ll watch the stars and planets until she falls asleep in the cockpit if left alone.

Luke is sitting, eyes closed on the bunk near the lounge when Rey walks into the living quarters.

“Master Skywalker?”

Luke breathes a deep sigh, as annoyed at her as she is with Chewie. Now that she can feel him through the Force, she had been checking up on him intermittently throughout their time in hyperspace. 

Once they had escaped the First Order, Luke had excused himself to the lounge area. Rey had given him the space, understanding why. But now she could feel his pain, physically and emotionally with all his emotions caught up in a storm with the Force now back.

“I’m fine, Rey,” he says with a exasperated sigh. Then, his face twinges with pain. 

Then Rey notices the sonic screwdriver in one hand and the mechanical stump of the other. The part that had been melted by Kylo’s lightsaber is gone, exposing the live wires connecting what’s left of the mech hand to Luke’s nervous system.

“Let me help,” Rey says. “If you don’t cross the wires correctly it’ll shock you.”

Luke finally looks up.

“You know about mech limbs?”

“Yes.”

Accidents happened on Jakku. A lot. Especially if you weren’t careful in the _Inflictor._ Rust and sand made things weak and fragile. If a scavenger wasn’t careful they could bring a whole bulkhead down on themselves, or fall through three levels of loose flooring. The ones that did survive accidents were considered extremely lucky. If they had lost something, a hand, a foot, a whole leg, scrap could be hoarded to create a decent prosthetic. But proper sterilization? Proper attachment so that the limb functioned properly? That was about as far away as the Core Worlds.

Most of your luck had run out by the time you needed a prosthetic. The chances of recovery were better if you just faced the amputation. Some scavengers adapted to life without limbs, but it was _hard._

Rey remembers an older man that had come to the same spot she did one day to scavenge. By mid-morning it was evident that he was in pain, and Rey stopped to help. The man’s leg stopped just below the knee, replaced by some TIE fighter wing durasteel, but the stump had become infected, swollen almost comically, large and red. Rey had removed some of the makeshift prosthetic and tied the wires so that it would become numb, but other than that, there wasn’t much she could do. 

The man was dead by the next morning, and after a few days, Rey couldn’t scavenge there anymore. No one could.

Rey takes the sonic screwdriver from Luke and gets to work. It’s just like repairing a piece of equipment, she tells herself.

She works in silence for a while while Luke meditates. Feeling him through the Force for the first time though, it’s distracting. She can feel Finn and Leia and Poe if she tries, Kylo Ren even when she doesn’t want to, but Luke. Luke is a fixed point, a beacon that she can feel so strongly.

“What was it like?” Rey has to ask, “Letting the Force back in?”

“As hard as having your mind ripped open again,” Luke admits. “As easy as breathing, too.”

Rey crosses the wrong wires and Luke pulls back with a jolt.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

“A bit like that too, I suppose,” Luke adds with a small smile. Rey grins back at him sheepishly and Luke offers his hand, or lack thereof, back to her.

This is so much more complex than the mech back on Jakku, as old as it may be. But Rey knows that that’s just the price of good technology.

Rey eventually falls into a rhythm, fiddling with the mechanics and wires of the limb, Luke’s meditations a calm hum at the back of her mind.

Another hour passes, and Rey is close to finishing up when she feels a wave of sadness lance through her chest. This time, it doesn’t come from lightyears away. Rey pauses.

“Luke? Is everything alright?”

There’s a long inhale between the silence.

“I’ve been away for a long time,” Luke says. “I’ve missed so much.”

“I know,” Rey finds herself saying. She feels adrift in this conversation, unsure of where to go next. “I’m sure Leia will be happy to see you.”

Luke studies her as she finishes fixing up what’s left of the wiring.

“I can’t do this alone, Rey,” he says. “That’s something I’ve been trying to teach you.”

Rey pauses.

“But—”

“I’m not the man I once was. Everyone thinks they need Luke Skywalker to end this whole war. I need you to help me, Rey. I can’t do this on my own. This isn’t just my story anymore.”

Rey sniffs, willing the sudden tears back. She’s thankful that her job isn’t done so she can busy her hands finishing up Luke’s repairs.

“I just need someone to show me my place in all of this.”

“I think you’re finding your own way pretty well right now.”

Luke offers a small smile when she looks back up at him, and Rey gives a watery, but grateful one back.

After she’s done, Luke inspects her work, impressed. 

“You do good work with a sonic screwdriver.” He points the stump of his wrist at the tool.

Rey grins. “Thank you.”

Luke taps on a secret compartment under the lounge and procures a worn-looking bacta kit. 

“Is that… still good?” Rey asks.

“We’ll find out.” Luke laughs.

The bacta is old, but otherwise still usable. Luke disinfects the gash Kylo left on Rey and Rey helps apply the bacta. It stings and hurts when the cauterized scabs flake off, but the bacta takes most of the edge off. They work silently until Luke reaches into the compartment under the lounge again for bandages— _clean_ ones, not the ones Rey has been wearing—and finds the journal Rey had stashed under there quickly when he had come by unannounced one night. 

He pauses, but doesn’t say anything as he picks up the gauze and hands it over.

“I’m sorry,” Rey blurts. “I didn’t mean to, it was just—”

“More interesting than the sacred texts?” There’s one of the rare sparks in Luke’s eye now.

“Well, yes,” Rey admits, focusing on wrapping her arm with Luke’s help.

“I must’ve misplaced it when I was reading the texts over myself,” Luke says dismissively. “All the covers look the same after a while.”

They finish wrapping her arm, but what Kylo had said to Luke bothers her. That, and what she’s read in Luke’s journal.

“What did Kylo Ren mean, back on Ahch-To. Did he… Did Kira…” Rey trails off, regretting that she even brought up this conversation. A different kind of pain has filled Luke’s eyes, but when she shakes her head, about to say that they don’t have to talk about it, he stops her.

“It was Mara. He killed her when he turned and attacked the Temple.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

Luke sighs, his face distant in that way Rey doesn’t like. 

“I’m sorry too.”

Rey feels it, the regret, the pain. She forces herself not to pry too much, and Luke doesn’t project.

“You would have liked her. She was a better teacher than I was.”

“If this is about what Kylo Ren said back there—” Rey swallows.

Luke shakes his head, no.

“It’s okay Rey. He says a lot of things.”

  


* * *

  


Rey eventually falls into a restless sleep on the couch. Her dreams are plagued with Kylo Ren looming over her, marred face exposed underneath the mask she broke, until, finally, she makes it onto the _Falcon._ But instead of the _Falcon_ , it’s a medical bay. Not the one on D’Qar or Crait.

 _It must be Yavin IV_ , Rey realizes as she watches Kalonia walk over towards a bacta tank. The dream feels real, _so real_ , even though Kalonia doesn’t seem to notice her.

Then Rey looks at the occupied bacta tank and—the disturbance, the pain, the screaming, it was _Poe._

Rey rushes to the bacta tank and presses her palm against the warm transparisteel. Her hand is shaking, and tears spring to her eyes when she can’t make it stop. She should’ve pushed harder, made Luke come with her sooner. Then maybe she could’ve been there to help. 

“What happened,” she whispers, looking over Poe’s body floating prone in the bacta. Her heart hurts seeing him like this, but there’s nothing for it now, they’re on their way back to join the fight again, and it’s going to have to be enough. 

“Hold on, please. I’m coming back soon, I promise.”

Poe’s eyes flutter open, hazy and distant, but Rey knows that he’s aware of her even if she’s not entirely sure what this is—a dream, a vision, something in between. He presses his hand against the inside of the tank and Rey sucks in a sharp breath; it feels like there’s nothing between their skin at all.

Rey blinks, trying to make sense of it all, but when she opens her eyes again, Poe’s hand is gone, Poe’s entire arm is gone, and Kylo Ren smashes his fist against the bacta tank. Rey screams and trips over her heels. When she looks back up, Poe is still there, unconscious as he floats in the tank, still connected to various tubes.

 _“Rey!”_ Finn rushes towards her side, helping her back on her feet before pulling her into a warm embrace.

“Finn!”

_“Are you okay? What happened?”_

“It was… It was nothing. I’m fine now.”

Finn looks unconvinced, but before Rey can reassure him, the dream fades to black and she groans, caught somewhere between sleep and conscious.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She hears Luke’s voice, far off in the distance. A warm hand comes to her shoulder and she falls back into a deep and mercifully dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some quick housekeeping things/notes:
> 
> I changed my username from officialscarif! Sorry if there was any confusion.
> 
> There were some pretty, uh, blatant continuity errors in the last chapter. They're fixed now!
> 
> I'm working on the rest of the outline so that'll give me a solid chapter count to share with you guys. I know it sucks reading a wip with ? chapters to go.
> 
> Anyways, I hope I'm not the only one who finds it hilarious imagining Hux's reaction to having to save Kylo's ass again.


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